{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,4]],"date-time":"2026-09-04T11:15:10Z","timestamp":1788520510687,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,25]],"date-time":"2022-08-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1661385600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Early-stage non-Hodgkin\u2019s lymphomas (ES-NHL) are associated with high survival rates. To minimize the risk of long-term sequelae, the duration and intensity of chemotherapy have been progressively reduced. Between 1988 and 2018, children with ES-NHL were treated at a single institute with two subsequent protocols. Protocol I consisted of a 7-week induction phase followed by a maintenance phase alternating 6-mercaptopurine plus MTX, a brief reinduction, and thioguanine plus cytosine arabinoside, for a total duration of 8 months. The subsequent protocol II (applied since 1997) was modified adding etoposide plus a further dose of HD-MTX and omitting maintenance in all histological subtypes except T-lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL), for a total duration of 9 weeks. Intrathecal prophylaxis was not provided in either protocol. With a median follow-up of 98.4 months, the 5-year event-free survival (EFS) rates in protocol I (n = 21) and II (n = 25) were 76.2% and 96%, respectively, and the 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 90.5% and 96%, respectively. None of the patients experienced disease progression or relapse within the central nervous system (CNS). Acute toxicity was manageable in both protocols, except for a case of presumed acute cardiotoxic death; no chronic sequelae were evident. Low-intensity chemotherapy for 9 weeks without intrathecal prophylaxis was sufficient for curing children with ES-NHL, without jeopardizing the excellent survival rate of this disease.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children9091279","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,25]],"date-time":"2022-08-25T21:28:12Z","timestamp":1661462892000},"page":"1279","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Ultra Short Course Chemotherapy for Early-Stage Non-Hodgkin\u2019s Lymphoma in Children"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Elisabetta","family":"Schiavello","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Filippo","family":"Spreafico","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto 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Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7080-6718","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Monica","family":"Terenziani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Luna","family":"Boschetti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giovanna","family":"Gattuso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stefano","family":"Chiaravalli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2149-329X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luca","family":"Bergamaschi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nadia","family":"Puma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2791-2192","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giovanna","family":"Sironi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Olga","family":"Nigro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marta","family":"Podda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cristina","family":"Meazza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0368-7883","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michela","family":"Casanova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, 20133 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Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1238","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJM199605093341906","article-title":"Non-Hodgkin\u2019s Lymphoma in Childhood","volume":"334","author":"Sandlund","year":"1996","journal-title":"N. 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