P. Pautier et al., Angioimmunoblastic-like T-cell non Hodgkin's lymphoma: Outcome after chemotherapy in 33 patients and review of the literature, LEUK LYMPH, 32(5-6), 1999, pp. 545-552
We analyzed 33 patients with AILD T-NHL in a retrospective multicentric stu
dy. The median age was 62 yr (35-84 yr) (19 patients over 60 yr), Advanced
disease (n = 31) and B-symptoms were consistently found (n = 29) and 20 pat
ients had bone marrow involvement, The main laboratory abnormalities were:
anemia (n = 13), hypereosinophilia (n = 13), lymphopenia (n = 14), hypergam
maglobulinemia (n = 17), elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level (n = 24
). First-line therapy was chemotherapy (ChT) alone (n = 25) or ChT after st
eroids (n = 8). Most patients received a CHOP-like regimen for a median num
ber of 6 cycles and 3 patients received interferon alpha (IFN alpha) as con
solidation after chemotherapy. With a median follow-up of 46 mo, 60% achiev
ed a complete response but the outcome was poor with a relapse rate at 56%,
a median survival referring to the total population was of 36 mo (2-108+ m
o) and an overall survival at 5 yr of 36%. Two patients received high-dose
chemotherapy (with total body irradiation) and autologous progenitor-cell t
ransplantation for chemosensitive relapse and were free of disease at, resp
ectively, 76 and 24 mo+, In conclusion AILD T-NHL still has a poor prognosi
s compared to other NHL. The role of intensive therapy and IFN alpha still
remains to be evaluated.