Patients and Methods: Sixty-one patients with measurable or assessable lymphoproliferative disorders (31 stage III or IV law-grade NHL; 21 chronic lymphocytic leukemia [CLL]; and nine cutaneous T-cell NHL [CTCL]) were enrolled. Patients were treated with somatostatin 150 mu g subcutaneously (SQ) every 8 hours for 1 month. Patients with stable or responding disease received 2 additional months of therapy; chose who responded after 3 months were treated for an additional greater than or equal to 3 months.

Results: Sixty patients were assessable for toxicity and 56 for response. There were no complete remissions, In the low-grade NHL group, 36% (10 of 28 patients; 95% confidence interval [Cl], 19% to 56%) had a partial remission. Forty-four percent (four of nine; 95% Cl, 14% to 79%) of patients with CTCL held a partial response. No patients with CLL had a partial remission. Among 45 patients with stable disease or a partial remission, the mean time to progression (TTP) was 10.9 months (median, 6.2; range, 1.6 to 48.5). The drug was well tolerated, with the most common side effects being diarrhea and hyperglycemia.

Conclusion: Somatostatin at a dose of 150 mu g every 8 hours is well tolerated and has activity in low-grade NHL. (C) 1995 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.