Abstract
At present, autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is considered as an optional consolidation therapy for natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL). However, the high-risk patients undergoing ASCT are not clear enough. In this study, 56 patients with advanced staged or relapsed/refractory (R/R) NKTCL undergoing ASCT were reviewed. All patients achieved clinical complete response (CR) before ASCT. The median follow-up time was 36 months (range, 3–192 months). The three-year overall survival (OS) and three-year progression-free survival (PFS) were 70.2% and 56.5%, respectively. The independent prognostic factors for OS included prior testis involvement and pre-ASCT EBV-DNA. Patients without prior testis involvement and negative pre-ASCT EBV-DNA (group A) had better three-year OS (86.3% vs. 47.6%, p < .001) than the rest patients (group B). In conclusion, our study suggests that testis involvement and elevated EBV-DNA might be strong adverse prognostic factors for NKTCL. Patients without the above risk factors are more likely to benefit from ASCT.
Acknowledgements
We thank all the patients, their families, and other clinical staff for their participation in the study.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare no competing financial interests.