Background: The International Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Project was organized to better understand the T-cell and natural killer (NK) cell lymphomas, and our task is to present the clinicopathologic correlations and therapeutic results for adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL).
Patients and methods: Among 1153 patients with T-cell or NK cell lymphomas, 126 patients (9.6%) with ATL were represented in this project. All were categorized as aggressive ATL, i.e. acute or lymphoma type, and 87% fell into the lymphoma type.
Results: The median age was 62 years and the male to female ratio was 1.2 : 1. Significant prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) by univariate analysis were the presence of B symptoms (P = 0.018), platelet count <150 x 10(9)/l (P = 0.065), and the International Prognostic Index (IPI; P = 0.019). However, multivariate analysis indicated that only the IPI was an independent predictor of OS. Combination chemotherapy including anthracyclines was given as the initial therapy in 109 of the 116 patients (94%) who received treatment, and the overall and complete response rates were 70% and 34%, respectively. However, there was no survival benefit for those receiving an anthracycline-containing regimen.
Conclusion: Patients with aggressive ATL have a poor clinical outcome and the IPI is a useful model for predicting outcome in ATL of the lymphoma type.