High-dose treatment with autologous haemopoietic progenitor cell support for large B-cell, follicular and mantle-cell lymphoma

The purpose of this chapter is to review the available information on the use of high-dose treatment (HDT) in large B-cell, follicular and mantle-cell lymphoma. The last 10 years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of patients receiving high-dose treatment with autologous haemopoietic progenitor cell support for non-Hodgkinʹs lymphoma. In patients with recurrent large B-cell lymphoma, HDT is now accepted as the ‘standard of care’, provided responsiveness to conventional chemotherapy at the time of recurrence has been demonstrated. In contrast, the situation in newly diagnosed patients is far from clear. Several phase III studies have been conducted, comparing conventional chemotherapy with either: the same treatment followed by HDT or an abbreviated number of cycles of conventional therapy followed by HDT. The results hitherto have not conclusively shown an advantage for HDT. In mantle-cell and follicular lymphoma, HDT should still be regarded as experimental. Current studies are evaluating the use of anti-CD20, given either as part of the treatment prior to HDT or as maintenance therapy. In view of the propensity for both of these illnesses to involve the bone marrow, a number of studies have addressed the question of in vitro treatment of the stem cell product. The advent of PCR analysis has made it possible to evaluate the significance of ‘molecular remission’. In follicular lymphoma, there is a correlation between freedom from recurrence and persistent PCR negativity for bcl-2 rearrangement-containing cells in follow-up bone marrow samples.