Long-term outcomes of patients treated with an EPOCHL regimen as first-line chemotherapy for newly diagnosed extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma: a retrospective single-center study

Abstract

We retrospectively evaluated the long-term outcomes of patients receiving an EPOCHL (EPOCH + L-asparaginase) regimen as first-line chemotherapy for newly diagnosed extranodal natural killer/T cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTL). Ninety-six patients received 2–8 cycles of EPOCHL. After 2–4 cycles, 55.2% patients had complete response (CR) and 39.6% had partial response (PR). 42.7% patients developed progressive or relapsed disease. The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 56.1% overall, 59.8% for stage I/II, and 34.9% for stage III/IV disease, and corresponding 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 58.7, 65.3, and 39.8%, respectively. OS differed significantly between patients with stage I/II and those with stage III/IV disease (p = 0.018). Patients who achieved CR had better 3-year OS of 92.9%. Advanced stage disease was a poor prognostic factor for OS. All major adverse events associated with the EPOCHL regimen were reversible, and this first-line chemotherapy was safe and effective for patients with ENKTL.

Keywords:

• Chemotherapy
• extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma
• prognosis
• treatment outcome

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the patients and clinical staffs of our center for their assistance in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Complying with ethics of experimentation

Our study is a retrospective study and follows the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.