Lippincott's Blood: Principles
and Practice of Hematology, 2nd ed. expresses chemotherapy
regimen EPOCH in an ambiguous manner
On table 23-8, the doses for etoposide, vincristine, adriamycin,
cyclophosphamide, and prednisone for the EPOCH regimen are expressed
in milligrams per meters squared, days 1-4. For example, the
etoposide dose in the table was listed as “200 mg/m2 days
1-4”. The intent is to have the entire 200 mg/m2 dose of
etoposide administered over four days. Instead, this has been
misinterpreted as giving the full dose, 200mg/m2, each day for
four days, a four-fold overdose. In the original article (Journal
of Clinical Oncology; 11(8):1573-82) where this regimen was
published, each dose is expressed as a daily amount (i.e. etoposide
50mg/m2 per day over 4 days). Lippincott plans to make this
correction in the next edition of the reference.
