Abstract
Neoplasms of natural killer (NK)-lineage are rare. Their prognosis is generally poor except for cases of solitary nasal NK-cell lymphoma. The NK-cell Tumor Study Group performed a survey in Japan on patients diagnosed between 1994 and 1998. Of 228 patients selected for analysis, 40 underwent HSCT (15 allografts and 25 autografts). The underlying diseases were myeloid/NK cell precursor acute leukemia (n=4), blastic NK-cell lymphoma (n=11), aggressive NK-cell leukemia (n=3), and nasal-type extranodal NK-cell lymphoma (n=22). At the time of HSCT, 22 patients were in complete remission (CR), 11 were in relapse, and seven were primary refractory. All patients received myeloablative conditioning regimens including total-body irradiation. Sixteen died of disease progression, and six of treatment-related causes. Overall, 4-year survival was 39% with a median follow-up of 50 months; this was significantly better than that of patients who did not undergo HSCT (21%, P=0.0003). For patients transplanted in CR, the 4-year overall survival was 68%, which was significantly better than that of patients who went into CR but did not undergo HSCT (P=0.03). These findings suggest that the HSCT is a promising treatment strategy for NK-cell lineage.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for the Second-Term Comprehensive 10-year Strategy for Cancer Control from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, a Grant-in-Aid for Science on Primary Areas (Cancer Research), from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan. The authors wish to thank the following collaborating institutions and their staffs for providing the patient data and specimens: Japanese Red Cross Asahikawa Hospital; Hokkaido University School of Medicine; National Sapporo Hospital; Sapporo Municipal Hospital; Fukushima Medical College; Ibaraki Children's Hospital; Tokyo University School of Medicine; Nippon Telephone and Telegram Kanto Hospital; Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo Women's Medical College; Metropolitan Komagome Hospital; National Cancer Center; Keio University School of Medicine; Nippon Medical School; Saiseikai Maebashi Hospital; Niigata University School of Medicine; Kanazawa University School of Medicine; Kanazawa Medical College; Mie University School of Medicine; Japanese Red Cross Kyoto First Hospital; Japanese Red Cross Osaka Hospital; Osaka Municipal Medical Center; National Osaka Hospital; Okayama University School of Medicine; Shimane Medical College; Tokushima University School of Medicine; Kurume Medical College; Kyushu University School of Medicine.
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Suzuki, R., Suzumiya, J., Nakamura, S. et al. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for natural killer-cell lineage neoplasms. Bone Marrow Transplant 37, 425–431 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705244
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705244
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