Clinical characteristics, survival outcomes, and prognostic factors in extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type: The National Cancer Database study (2004-2019).
Authors: Baidoun Firas , Hoppe Bradford S. , Peterson Jennifer , Jiang Liuyan , Li Ke , Tun Han W. , Alhaj Moustafa Muhamad 
Published: June 2023

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Background: Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL), nasal type, is a rare and aggressive Epstein-Barr virus driven lymphoma, which is most prevalent in East Asia and Latin America. There have been very few large studies outside of Asia. Therapeutic and survival outcomes have not been well characterized in the US. Methods: The National Cancer Database was queried for patients who were diagnosed at aged ≥18 years between 2004 and 2019. Patients who were lost to follow-up were excluded. Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed. Results: The cohort consists of 2,036 evaluable patients with 68% males, 74% Caucasian, 22% Hispanic Caucasian and 9% African American. The median age at diagnosis was 54 (18-90) years. The median follow up was 71 months (95% CI 66.8-75.7). Early-stage disease (I and II) was reported in 64% while advanced stage disease (III and IV) constituted 36%. Treatment groups include chemotherapy alone (29%), radiation alone (10%), combined modality therapy (CMT-chemoradiation) (42%). The median overall survival (OS) for the whole cohort was 27 months (95% CI 20.6-33.7). Median OS was better in patients with early stage compared to advanced stage disease (90 vs. 6 months, P < 0.001). Among therapeutic groups in early-stage disease, CMT (N = 616) had significantly better median OS than radiation alone (N = 152) or chemotherapy alone (N = 168) (194 vs. 34 vs. 14 months, P < 0.001). No significant difference was seen between radiation alone and chemotherapy alone (P = 0.617). Among patients treated with CMT, chemotherapy-first CMT (N = 134) had better OS than radiation-first CMT (N = 347) (median OS not reached vs. 194 months, P = 0.017). In the advanced stage disease, chemotherapy-treated patients (N = 418) had better median OS compared to patients who did not receive chemotherapy (N = 103) (7.6 vs 1.3 months, P < 0.001). Among patients who received chemotherapy, patients consolidated with SCT (N = 59) had better median OS compared to the patients who received chemotherapy only (N = 353) (63 vs 6 months, P < 0.001) In multivariate analysis, factors associated with worse OS were age (HR 1.021 95% CI 1.015-1.026; P < 0.001) and B-symptoms (HR 1.463 95% CI 1.276-1.678; P < 0.001). Whereas factors associated with better OS were early stage (HR 0.450 95% CI 0.387-0.524, P < 0.001), radiation therapy (HR 0.526 95% CI 0.458-0.603, P < 0.001) and chemotherapy (HR 0.546 95% CI 0.473-0.630, P < 0.001). Conclusions: The study represents one of the largest studies on ENKTL in the US. Early-stage disease is highly curable with CMT with chemotherapy-first sequencing being superior to radiation-first sequencing. Advanced stage disease is associated with extremely poor prognosis overall but is associated with a significant improvement in OS with consolidative SCT with possible role of consolidative RT in advanced stage.