The present study aimed to analyse the treatment outcome of four cycles of CHOP (cyclophosphamide-vincristine-doxorubicin-prednisolone) followed by involved field radiation therapy (IF RT) for the treatment of stage I-II nasal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma. From March 1995 to December 1999, 17 patients (median age 41 years; range 30-66) with localized nasal NK/T-cell lymphoma were enrolled. B symptoms were noted in five patients (31%). Sixteen of seventeen patients (94%) were of low risk when classified according to the International Prognostic Index (IPI). The treatment plan consisted of four cycles of CHOP chemotherapy followed by IF RT of 45 Gy. Two patients received radiation during the first or second cycle of CHOP because of bleeding from the primary tumour site. Both patients achieved complete responses (CRs). In the remaining 15 patients, after 4 cycles of CHOP, 6 CRs and 3 partial responses (PRs) were achieved (53% of response rate). IF RT was given to six patients (four in CR, one in PR and one in PD), and all six patients achieved CR. Overall, CR was achieved in 10 of 17 patients (58%). The planned sequential chemoradiotherapy was completed in only 6 of 17 patients (35%) because of the progression during chemotherapy. None of the patients who achieved CR experienced relapse of lymphoma during follow-up. The estimated overall three-year survival rate was 59%. In univariate analysis, B symptoms and stage were significant prognostic factors for response and overall survival (P < 0.05). The present study suggests that four cycles of CHOP followed by IF RT is not satisfactory for treating patients with localized nasal NK/T-cell lymphoma, and that further exploration for improved therapy is needed.

The excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1) enzyme plays a rate-limiting role in the nucleotide excision repair pathway and is associated with resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of ERCC1 expression as a predictive marker of survival in patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) treated with cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). ERCC1 expression was assessed by immunohistochemical staining. The median age of the 45 patients analysed was 56 years (range 27–75 years), and 82% were men; 73% of all specimens showed high expression of ERCC1. The overall tumour response rate after CCRT was 89%. The median follow-up was 53.6 months (95% CI, 34.5–72.7 months). The 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 58.7 and 61.3%, respectively. Univariate analyses showed that patients with low expression of ERCC1 had a significantly higher 3-year PFS (83.3 vs 49.4%, P=0.036) and OS (91.7 vs 45.5%, P=0.013) rates. Multivariate analysis showed that low expression of ERCC1 was an independent predictor for prolonged survival (HR, 0.120; 95% CI, 0.016–0.934, P=0.043). These results suggest that ERCC1 expression might be a useful predictive marker of locally advanced SCCHN in patients treated with cisplatin-based CCRT.

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