Role of radiotherapy in the combined treatment of patients with early stage extranodal nasal type NK/T-cell lymphoma and analysis of prognostic factors / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the role of radiotherapy (RT) and prognostic factors in the combined modality treatment (CMT) of patients with stage ⅠE-ⅡE extranodal nasal type NK/T-cell lym-phoma. Methods From Dec. 1990 to Dec. 2006,177 patients who were diagnosed and treated in our hos-pital were retrospectively analyzed,induding 37 received chemotherapy (CT) alone ( median 4 cycles), 128 received CT (median 3 cycles) followed by RT (median 52 Gy) ,6 received RT alone (median 58 Gy) and 6 received RT ( median 54 Gy) followed by CT ( median 5 cycles). Results The overall response ( CR + PR) rate after initial CT was 60.8% compared with 83.8% after RT ( x2 = 28.63, P < 0.01 ). The 5-year overall survival (OS) and progress-free survival (PFS) rates were 46.2% and 36.8% ,respectively. The lo-cal control rates were 80.9% for RT ( alone or with CMT) and 50.0% for CT alone (x2 = 14.39, P < 0.01 ), and corresponding 5-year OS and PFS were 53.4% vs. 18.3 % ( x2 = 23.38, P < 0.01 ) and 45.0% vs. 10.9% (x2 =23.46,P <0.01 ),respectively. Compared with CT alone,the following definitive RT for patients who achieved response or not after initial CT significantly improved the local control [83.5%, 76.2% vs. 50.0% (x2 = 14.13,P <0.01;x2 =5.78,P <0.01)] and 5-year OS[56.2%,48.6% vs. 18.3%(x2 =28.87,P <0. 05;x2 =4.80,P <0.05)]. Concinsions Compared with CT alone, RT a-chieves better tumor response, local control and survival of patients not only with tumor response but also with local progression after CT. Definitive RT should be the reasonable choice of treatment for early stage extran-odal nasal type NK/T-cell lymphoma.