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In the Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma–Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster 95 (NHL-BFM95) study, we tested by randomization whether for patients with B-cell neoplasms methotrexate as intravenous infusion over 4 hours (MTX-4h) is not inferior to, but less toxic than, a 24-hour intravenous infusion (MTX-24h). Second, we investigated against the historical control of study NHL-BFM90, whether for patients with moderate tumor mass MTX can be reduced from 5 g/m² to 1 g/m². Patients received 2 5-day therapy courses in risk group R1 (resected), 4 in R2 (lactate dehydrogenase [LDH] < 500 U/L), 5 in R3 (LDH > 500 to < 1000 U/L) and 6 in R4 (LDH > 1000 U/L and/or central nervous system [CNS] disease). Courses contained MTX 1 g/m² in R1 + R2 and 5 g/m² in R3 + R4. Of 505 patients (April 1996 to March 2001), 364 were randomized to receive MTX-4h or MTX-24h. Failure-free survival (pFFS, 1 year) for arm MTX-4h versus …