Purpose Nasal type extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) can be associated with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (NK/T-LAHLH), which is a rare and fatal disease with no effective therapy. We evaluated whether etoposide + dexamethasone-based chemotherapy regimens might be useful for treating NK/T-LAHLH. Methods This retrospective single-center study evaluated clinical data from 37 patients with NK/T-LAHLH who were treated between May 2008 and January 2020. Results Among 363 patients with ENKTL, the cumulative incidence of HLH was 11.9%. Among 43 patients with NK/T-LAHLH, 37 patients received etoposide + dexamethasone-based chemotherapy regimens, with an overall response rate of 45.9% for the HLH. The overall response rate was substantially higher for newly diagnosed NK/T-LAHLH than it was for relapsed or refractory NK/T-LAHLH (66.7% vs. 18.8%). The median overall follow-up time was 4 months, with overall survival rates of 81.1% at 1 month, 62.2% at 2 months, 56.8% at 3 months, and 34.4% at 6 months. Significantly better overall survival (all P < 0.05) was observed for patients with newly diagnosed NK/T-LAHLH (vs. relapsed/refractory disease), stage I/II disease (vs. stage III/IV disease), and nasal disease (vs. non-nasal disease). Patients who responded to the ENKTL treatment also experienced response in their HLH; 8 patients experienced continued complete response for both HLH and ENKTL. Multivariate analysis revealed that a poor prognosis among patients with NK/T-LAHLH was independently related to relapsed/refractory ENKTL and non-nasal disease. Conclusion Although patients with NK/T-LAHLH generally experienced poor outcomes, etoposide + dexamethasone-based chemotherapy regimens were associated with good outcomes among select patients with newly diagnosed or stage I/II NK/T-LAHLH.
Blue rubber bleb naevus syndrome (BRBNS) is an extremely rare venous malformation that often manifests as multiple haemangioma-like lesions in the skin and gastrointestinal tract. The drug sirolimus plays a key role in the signalling pathway of angiogenesis and subsequent development of BRBNS and its use has been described in several case reports. We present a case series of four patients with BRBNS who exhibited good treatment response to sirolimus. All four patients were administered oral sirolimus at doses of 1.0-1.5 mg/m 2 /day with a target drug level of 5-10 ng/mL and median treatment duration of 20 months. All patients had a reduction in the size of the lesions and a normalization of coagulopathy with tolerable drug adverse reactions at follow-up. Sirolimus may be effective and safe in paediatric patients with BRBNS. Further prospective studies are suggested to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of this drug.
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