Pentostatin (Nipent) in T-cell lymphomas.

Pentostatin (Nipent; SuperGen, San Ramon, CA), which is highly lymphocytotoxic, is an active agent in hairy cell leukemia. We therefore initiated a trial of this agent in T-cell lymphomas. Pentostatin was administered at a dose of 3.75 or 5.0 mg/m2/d intravenously for 3 days every 3 weeks to heavily pretreated patients with cutaneous and peripheral T-cell lymphomas. To date, there are 24 evaluable patients in the trial. Seventeen of these individuals have responded (complete or partial remission). The most common toxicities included granulocytopenia, nausea, renal insufficiency, CD4 suppression, and delayed herpes zoster. Pentostatin is an active agent in this group of diseases and merits further exploration.