NON-HODGKINS-LYMPHOMAS (NHL) IN CHILDREN - EFFICIENCY OF DIFFERENT TREATMENT METHODS

170 NHL children aged 1-14 [mean age 6] have been treated for the last 5 years. The diagnostic examination included the disease history, phy sical examination, bone marrow cytology, tumor histology (all patients ), immunophenotyping (17 cases), x-ray and sonography of the chest and abdomen. According to the international NHL staging system, 35% of th e patients had NHL stage II, 65% stage III or IV. The study entered 71 patients who underwent additional lactate dehydrogenase test, CT-scan ning. 44 of them received nonprogrammed therapy on the basis of ACOP ( group I), 27 patients were treated according to BFM-NHL-90 for B-, non -B- and large-cell anaplastic lymphomas (group II). The efficiency of the methods did not differ for patients at stage IIR. At the II NR sta ge complete remission (CR) was up to 41 % in the group I and 60 % in t he group II. 50 % of the children from group I and 20 % from the group II were resistant to treatment. All the group I patients developed re lapses, none got relapses in the group II. CR was observed i n 64 % an d 78 % of patients f rom group I and II, respectively, who had NHL sta ge III and IV. Relapses occurred in 41 % and 14 %, respectively. CCR w as in 22 % in the group I and in 67 % of the group II patients. Effect iveness of B-NHL treatment according to BFM protocols was higher than in other types of NHL as to the number of -relapses and frequency of C CR: the latter was 76 % compared to 50 % of non-B-NHL. It is concluded that programmed treatment of NHL is more beneficial than non-programm ed one. Using protocol BFM-NHL-90 if is possible to advance NHL treatm ent still more provided it is followed in all details and therapeutic recommendations, in adequate supply of drugs under the care of skilled personnel.