High-dose
chemotherapy followed by autologous
hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) is considered the standard
therapy for patients with relapsed
lymphoma. The aim of our study is the comparison of
mitoxantrone-
melphalan and BEAM (
carmustine,
etoposide, cytarabin and
melphalan) conditioning regimens before autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant in patients with
lymphoma. This study has been performed in a retrospective manner. Hundred and two patients with relapsed/refractory
Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 35) and
non-Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 67) who underwent high-dose treatment followed by AHSCT at Memorial Sisli Hospital between 2013 and 2018 were evaluated. We retrieved data on patient demographics, disease status and post AHSCT outcomes. For conditioning regimen 52 patients received
mitoxantrone (60 mg/m2 × 1 day) and
melphalan (180 mg/m2 × 1 day) and 50 patients received BEAM (
carmustine at 300 mg/m2 × 1 day,
etoposide at 200 mg/m2 × 4 days,
cytarabine at 2 × 200 mg/m2 × 4 days and
melphalan at 140 mg/m2 × 1 day). The median age was 45 (18-73) years at the time of the diagnosis. No significant difference was observed in baseline characteristics between groups, including the disease control and previous
therapies. Prior to high-dose
chemotherapy, 79.4% of the patients were
in complete remission (CR) and 20.6% was in partial remission (PR). With a median follow up of 30.5 months (range: 1-70 months) for the whole cohort, even though the OS was similar in both groups (86% ± 2.4 vs. 84% ± 3.2; p = 0.85), the PFS was noted to be superior among those who received conditioning with
BEAM protocol (55% ± 3.7) compared to those with
mitoxantrone-
melphalan (30.6% ± 2.8; p = 0.006). In conclusion, we demonstrated that the
BEAM regimen is an effective high-dose
chemotherapy for
lymphoma patients before AHSCT. Nevertheless
mitoxantrone-
melphalan regimen is also an alternative to the
BEAM regimen.