High-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) for extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) is a reasonable option for a subset of patients. The impact of response status, according to positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) results and/or presence of circulating EBV DNA prior to ASCT, has not yet been established. We analyzed 27 ENKTL patients with pre-ASCT circulating EBV DNA who had undergone pre-ASCT PET/CT between 2009 and 2014. We classified patients into two groups based on the result of pretransplantation assessment: a favorable risk group (pretransplant five-point Deauville score (DS) of 1-2 based on PET/CT and no detectable EBV DNA) and an unfavorable risk group (DS 1-2 with detectable EBV DNA, DS 3-5 with or without detectable EBV DNA). After a median follow-up of 37 months, overall survival and PFS were significantly different between the two groups (median OS: not reached for favorable risk group vs 7.0 months for unfavorable risk group, P = 0.017; median PFS: 16.0 vs 5.0 months, P = 0.019). Multivariate analysis revealed that pre-ASCT DS and EBV DNA was the only independent prognostic factor considering stage, IPI and NKPI. Precise assessment of the status of disease before transplantation may provide more benefit from ASCT to ENKTL patients.Bone Marrow Transplantation (2016) 51, 807-812; doi:10.1038/bmt.2016.6; published online 8 February 2016
INTRODUCTIONExtranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) is a rare and distinct subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), which is characterized by clinically aggressive behavior leading to poor survival among all T-cell lymphoma subtypes. 1 Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) followed by chemotherapy has shown promising results with manageable toxicities for localized disease, 2,3 and the application of nonanthracycline-based chemotherapy incorporating L-asparaginase has improved survival outcome of advanced, relapsed or refractory ENKTL patients. [4][5][6] However, treatment failure still occurs frequently, and thus the unmet need persists for additional therapies to improve outcomes for patients with ENKTL. Accordingly, highdose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has been evaluated as a consolidation therapy for ENKTL. However, previous studies have failed to clearly determine the efficacy of ASCT, because most of them were retrospective analyses with small sample sizes, and the enrolled patient populations were very heterogeneous, including various transplantation settings. 7-11 Moreover, although previous data showed that disease status at the time of ASCT was the most important prognostic factor for survival and relapse-free survival, 9,11 the optimal response assessment with respect to existing computed tomography (CT) scans, positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) findings, and EBV