Salvage therapy of aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with a combination of vinblastine, bleomycin, and cisplatin.

Thirteen patients with aggressive histologic types of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma had failed to respond or relapsed after intensive polychemotherapy of curative intent. They were treated with a combination of vinblastine, bleomycin, and cisplatin. All were Stage III or IV, and eight had systemic symptoms. There were five objective partial remissions, and no complete remissions. The Kaplan-Meier 50% survival estimate is 5 months from initiation of the salvage chemotherapy. Seven of 13 patients had grade II nausea and vomiting, and 7 had nadir platelet counts less than 70,000/mm3. All had significant anemia. There were two episodes of sepsis, and two patients had pulmonary and nephrotoxicity. The program is not effective in this situation, and is quite toxic.