Ifosfamide is an alkylating agent with proven efficacy in the treatment of solid tumours and malignant lymphomas. Because it causes only mild to moderate myelosuppression, ifosfamide is often used in combination regimens with other agents. Ifosfamide has been mainly used in therapy of lymphoma as a component of salvage regimens, but high-dose ifosfamide is also effective in the mobilization of peripheral stem cells for treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma with regimens containing autologous stem cell transplantation. Based on promising data with a new combination regimen containing idarubicin, etoposide and ifosfamide (IIVP-16) in patients with poor-risk non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, we have performed a phase II study using DIZE (dexamethasone 20 mg i.v. days 1-4, idarubicin 8 mg/m2 i.v. days 1 + 2, ifosfamide 1.0 g/m2 continuous infusion (c.i.) days 1-4, and etoposide 160 mg/m2 c.i. days 1-4) in patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In 43 evaluable patients, the response rate was 58%, including 11 complete remissions (CR) and 14 partial remissions (PR). The mean duration of response was 8 months (1-30). Myelosuppression was generally mild with mean duration of neutropenia < 1000/microL of 2.5 days (range 0-18) and thrombocytopenia < 25,000/microL of 1.5 days (0-17). Thus, DIZE is an effective and safe regimen for pretreated patients with aggressive lymphoma. These results appear to compare favourably with other salvage regimens such as IMVP-16 or DHAP. In conclusion, salvage regimens containing ifosfamide can play an important role in patients who are not eligible for high-dose chemotherapies. Moreover, ifosfamide might also have a role in reducing tumour burden and selecting those patients who qualify for HDCT.