ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the clinical characteristics and survival data of 57 patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma-not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The medical records of 57 patients with PTCL-NOS classified according to the revised REAL-WHO criteria, treated from Jan 1993 to Dec 2007 at the First and the Third affiliated Hospitals of Medical School of Xi'an Jiaotong University, were retrospectively evaluated by K-M univariate and COX multivariate analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>39 of the patients (68.4%) were males and 18 (31.6%) were females, aged 44 (3 - 88). Nine of the 57 patients (15.8%) were treated with chemo-radiotherapy, 43 (75.4%) with chemotherapy, 3 (5.3%) with radiotherapy, and 2 with supported treatment alone (2.5%). The overall response rate was 87.3%, with a complete remission (CR) rate of 60.0% in 55 evaluable cases. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 67.0%, 48.0% and 24.3%, respectively, with a median follow-up of 30.4 months (ranged 1-100 months). The median survival time (MST) was 36.0 months. Multivariate analysis showed that the prognostic index for T cell lymphoma (PIT) score was an independent prognostic factor for PTCL-NOS (P < 0.05), but bone marrow involvement, performance status, extranodal involvement, stage, B symptom were not independent prognostic factors.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Although conventional chemotherapy yields a high response rate for PTCL-NOS, the long-term survival is still low and further investigation for optional treatment is needed.</p>