Combination chemotherapy with CHOP (cyclophosphamide, Adriamycin, vincristine, and prednisone) and HOP (Adrimycin, vincristine, and prednisone, was used as treatment for patients with pathologically staged, advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Among 204 evaluable patients treated on CHOP there were 71% complete remissions with 92% overall responses. Among the 216 evaluable patients on HOP there were 61% complete remissions and 88% responses. Complete remission rates among patients with histiocytic lymphoma were comparable to those of patients with lymphocytic disease. Patients with nodular lymphoma had higher rates of complete remission than their counterparts with diffuse lymphoma. This was noted with both CHOP (78% vs. 67%) and HOP (67% vs. 60%) induction therapy. Rapid responses were common, as more than 14% of complete remissions and 66% of overall responses were achieved with the first course of treatment. Patients in complete remission have been maintained with either cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone (COP) or arabinosyl cytosine, vincristine, and prednisone (OAP). After 1 year, 86% of patients on COP and 80% on OAP are projected to be free of disease.

One‐hundred‐two patients with malignant melanoma who had distant metastases surgically resected and were judged to be clinically free of disease (M. D. Anderson Stage IVA melanoma) were studied. The median survival for all the patients from time of diagnosis of stage IVA disease was 18 months. The site of the resected metastases did not appear to influence survival, being approximately the same for the brain (15 months), lung (16 months), intraabdominal (18 months), and skin and/or lymph nodes (23 months). The site of the resected metastases also did not influence the median disease‐free interval. Patients who had metastases resected from several organs at the same time had a median survival of 15 months, which was similar to that of patients with one resected site. Patients who were rendered Stage IVA on several occasions by surgical excisions had a median survival of 36 months. Thirty‐five patients received surgery only and 67 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or combined chemoimmunotherapy after surgery. For the group treated with surgery only, the median disease‐free interval and survival from diagnosis of stage IVA disease were 6 months and 16 months, respectively, and for the adjuvant group 6 months and 21 months, respectively. Specifically, by the type of adjuvant therapy, the median disease‐free interval and survival from stage IVA for 23 patients receiving Corynebacterium parvum were 6.9 and 19 months; for 39 patients receiving BCG, eight months and 26 months; for 24 patients receiving BCG + DTIC, eight and 17.4 months; and for all 51 DTIC treated patients 6.3 and 17.8 months, respectively. Patients receiving BCG had a median survival superior to the surgery only group (P = 0.02). An increase in survival was seen predominantly in patients who achieved IVA status more than once and received BCG. Patients with recurrent soft‐tissue metastases appeared to benefit most from BCG in prolonging the disease‐free interval. Only 1/10 treated by surgery alone had a disease‐free interval longer than 1 year, compared with 9/16 who received BCG (P = 0.01). Stage IVA melanoma appears to be distinctly different in prognosis from Stage IVB melanoma and should be classified separately. Patients with recurrent soft‐tissue disease may benefit significantly from treatment with BCG.

Two hundred and two adult patients with acute leukemia were analyzed to determine pretreatment and treatment factors that could predict for duration of bone marrow remission. Several factors had a significant effect on remission duration, including morphologic diagnosis (AML greater than ALL greater than AUL), initial blast cell count, age, serum LDH, fibrinogen level, labeling index, and in vitro agar colony growth. Patients who attained a remission quickly or in whom leukemic cells in blood and bone marrow were rapidly cleared had long remissions. After applying regression model fitting methods, the six major factors, in order of significance, were the initial serum LDH level, pretreatment fibrinogen level, the number of courses of treatment to obtain a remission, morphologic diagnosis, the halving rate of leukemic cells in the blood, and the age of the patient. The model derived from this study was applied to the 202 patients and suggested that patients likely to have short or long bone marrow remission can be identified.