[Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: treatment and outcome of children with advanced disease].

In recent years, the results of treating children with advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphomas have improved markedly. Among patients with small non-cleaved cell lymphoma (both Burkitt's and Burkitt-like lymphomas according to the Revised European American Lymphoma Classification) in particular, about 80% could be cured by a short intensive polychemotherapy containing cyclophosphamide, high-dose methotrexate, and high-dose cytarabine. In contrast, standard treatment strategies for the diffuse large cell lymphomas and lymphoblastic lymphomas have yet to be established. Recent studies have shown that the treatment protocols for patients with large cell lymphomas should be determined based on both the histological and immunological classifications. Since the outcome of lymphoblastic lymphoma patients who are treated with a multi-drug regimen is less than optimal, further improvement in this therapy is needed. At the present time, the combination of bone marrow rescue with high-dose therapy is partially effective for refractory cases. To further help these patients, new strategies with allogenic stem cell transplantation to further boost the potential graft-versus-lymphoma effect appear necessary.