Outcome of patients with nasal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma treated with radiotherapy, with or without chemotherapy

✍ Scribed by Ivan Weng Keong Tham; Khai Mun Lee; Swee Peng Yap; Susan Li-Er Loong

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 217 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1043-3074
• DOI: 10.1002/hed.20314

✦ Synopsis

Background. This study reviews the outcome of patients with nasal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma treated at the Therapeutic Radiology Department, National Cancer Centre, Singapore, from 1997 to 2003.

Methods. Twenty-one consecutive patients treated with radiotherapy, with or without chemotherapy, were retrospectively reviewed.

Results. The median age was 44 years (range, 27 -86 years). Thirteen patients had stage I disease, five had stage II disease, and three had stage IV disease. Immunophenotyping was CD 56 + in 18 patients. Median follow-up for patients still alive was 23.4 months (range, 8.9 -78.5 months). A median dose of 50 Gy (range, 35 -56 Gy) was delivered. Sixteen patients also received chemotherapy. Two-year overall survival was 52.8%. Five patients had rapidly progressive disease, with a median survival of 89 days from diagnosis. The other 16 patients had complete remission, after which four relapsed. There were two local relapses.

Conclusions. This disease often carries a poor prognosis, despite multimodality treatment. Radiotherapy may contribute to local control in some patients.