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The incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphomas increases with age. Non-pegylated liposomal formulations of doxorubicin (Myocet®®) reduce systemic and cardiac toxicity especially in the elderly, who often have cardiac diseases. We treated 80 patients (mean age 70.9 years) with poor-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with the R-COMP 21 regimen (Myocet®® 50 mg/m2, cyclophosphamide 750 mg/m2, vincristine 1.4 mg/m2, rituximab 375 mg/m2, prednisone 100 mg/day). In all, 82.5%% and 13.7%% patients showed complete and partial responses, respectively. Sixty-two of the 80 patients are alive and disease-free (77.5%%), while 3/80 are alive with active disease and 15 patients (18.7%%) have died (median follow-up: 31 months). The estimated probability of overall survival at 12/24 months from admission was 93.5/87.3%%, respectively. There were no therapy-related cardiac events and the ejection fraction improved (from 51.6 ±± 6.9%% to 54.2 ±± 3.9%%). Grade 3--4 neutropenia occurred in 22%% of patients. We concluded that Myocet®® shows both efficacy and tolerability, mainly at the cardiac level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ninety patients with untreated, stage I-II A myeloma, were randomised to receive or not monthly infusions of pamidronate (PMD) for 1 year, without additional therapies. Follow-up ranged from 36 to 72 months (median 51 months). Three years after the start of the treatment, the disease had progressed in 25% of PMD treated patients and in 26.8% of controls (p n.s). Median time-to-progression was 16 and 17.4 months, respectively (p n.s). Among the 21 patients who required chemo-radiotherapy, skeletal events (osteolytic lesions, pathological fractures and/or hypercalcemia) developed in 9/11 (81.8%) controls and in 4/10 (40%) of treated patients (p < 0.01). "Prophylactic" administration of PMD may decrease the development of skeletal events, but does not reduce the rate and the time of disease progression in early-stage myeloma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]