High-dose chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with mantle cell or diffuse centrocytic non-Hodgkin's lymphomas: a single center experience on 18 patients.

Between 1985 and 1996, 18 patients with diffuse centrocytic lymphoma (DCL), including nine patients with an established histological and phenotypic diagnosis of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), received 19 courses of high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Five patients received HDCT as consolidation treatment after first-line standard chemotherapy, and 14 after a relapse or progression, including one patient in early relapse after the first transplant. Six patients (33%) were in complete response (CR) prior to HDCT and 12 (67%) were in partial response: 10 (83%) of these 12 patients achieved CR at day 60 following HDCT. With a median follow-up of 30 months after HDCT, the 2-year overall and progression-free survivals of the whole series are 91 and 75%, respectively. The 2-year progression-free survivals are 74 and 75%, respectively, in the MCL and DCL subgroups.