Combination therapy for diffuse histiocytic lymphoma that includes antimetabolites.

Thirty patients with diffuse histiocytic lymphoma (DHL) were treated with one of three regimens that included cyclophosphamide, vincristine, methotrexate with citrovorum factor rescue, and cytosine arabinoside. Twelve patients had a complete response with a predicted 50% survival of at least 76 months. The medium survival of the 11 partial responders and seven nonresponders was 18 and 6 months, respectively. The addition of methotrexate and cytosine arabinoside may have a beneficial effect in therapy for DHL. From analysis of these results, there is reason to believe that efficacy may be partially dependent on the scheduling and dose of these two drugs.