Real world data on prognostic factors and treatment in peripheral T-cell lymphomas: a study from the Swedish Lymphoma Registry.

Peripheral T-cell Lymphomas (PTCLs) are rare lymphomas with mostly poor outcome with current treatment. Addition of etoposide to CHOP and up-front consolidation with autologous stem cell transplantation (autoSCT) have shown promising results, but have never been tested in randomized trials. As a complement to retrospective analyses of clinical trials, we aimed at analyzing prognostic factors and outcome in an unselected, population-based cohort. Through the Swedish Lymphoma Registry we identified 755 PTCL patients diagnosed during a 10-year period. In addition to International Prognostic Index (IPI) factors, male gender was associated with an adverse overall survival (OS) (HR 1.28, p=0.011) and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR 1.26, p=0.014). In an intention-to-treat analysis in 252 nodal PTCL and EATL patients (excluding ALK-positive ALCL), up-front autoSCT was associated with a superior OS (HR 0.58, p=0.004) and PFS (HR 0.56, p=0.002) compared to patients treated without autoSCT. Addition of etoposide to CHOP resulted in superior PFS in patients up to 60 years (HR 0.49, p=0.008). This study is the largest population-based PTCL cohort reported so far and provides important information on outcome in PTCL outside the setting of clinical trials.