Bone Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Bone Cancer, including details on symptoms, types, treatment.

Extranodal natural killer T-cell lymphoma, nasal-type: a prognostic model from a retrospective multicenter study.

Lee J, Suh C, Park YH, Ko YH, Bang SM, Lee JH, Lee DH, Huh J, Oh SY, Kwon HC, Kim HJ, Lee SI, Kim JH, Park J, Oh SJ, Kim K, Jung C, Park K, Kim WS

Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

PURPOSE: Patients with natural killer T (NK/T) -cell lymphomas have poor survival outcome, and for this condition there is no optimal therapy. The purpose of this study was to design a prognostic model specifically for extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, which can identify high-risk patients who need more aggressive therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This multicenter retrospective study was comprised of 262 patients who were diagnosed with NK/T-cell lymphoma. RESULTS: After a median follow-up duration of 51.2 months, 5-year overall survival rate in 262 patients was 49.5%. Prognostic factors for survival were "B" symptoms (P = .0003; relative risk, 2.202; 95% CI, 1.446 to 3.353), stage (P = .0006; relative risk, 2.366; 95% CI, 1.462 to 3.828), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level (P = .0005; relative risk, 2.278; 95% CI, 1.442 to 3.598), and regional lymph nodes (P = .0044; relative risk, 1.546; 95% CI, 1.009 to 2.367). Of 262 patients, 219 had complete information on four parameters. We identified four different risk groups: group 1, no adverse factor; group 2, one factor; group 3, two factors; and group 4, three or four factors. The new model showed a superior prognostic discrimination as compared with the International Prognostic Index (IPI). Notably, the distribution of patients was balanced when a new model was adopted (group 1, 27%; group 2, 31%; group 3, 20%; group 4, 22%), whereas 81% of patients were categorized as low or low-intermediate risks using IPI. CONCLUSION: The newly proposed model for extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma demonstrated a more balanced distribution of patients into four groups with better prognostic discrimination as compared with the IPI.

Published 31 January 2006 in J Clin Oncol, 24(4): 612-8.
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