Adjuvant chemotherapy for primary lymphoma of the central nervous system
M. C. Chamberlain and V. A. Levin
Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.
Ten immunocompetent patients with primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the
central nervous system were treated by the neuro-oncology service at the
University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). After undergoing surgery
for biopsy or removal of their tumors, these patients (group 1) received
irradiation with hydroxyurea followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with the
combination of procarbazine, lomustine (CCNU), and vincristine. The outcome
of treatment in this group was compared with that in three other groups of
patients with primary CNS lymphoma: patients treated at the UCSF Cancer
Research Institute who underwent surgery and radiation therapy (RT) (group
2); patients described in the literature who had surgery and RT (group 3);
or patients described in the literature who had surgery, RT, and
chemotherapy (group 4). Median and quartile survival times were greater in
patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy (group 1, 30 and 50 months;
group 4, 20 and 25 months) than in patients who did not receive
chemotherapy after RT (group 2, 13 and 20 months; group 3, 15 and 24
months). These results suggest that adjuvant chemotherapy is useful in the
treatment of primary CNS lymphoma.
