Summary Background The clinical outcome of extranodal natural killer T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) has improved substantially as a result of new treatment strategies with non-anthracycline-based ...chemotherapies and upfront use of concurrent chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy. A new prognostic model based on the outcomes obtained with these contemporary treatments was warranted. Methods We did a retrospective study of patients with newly diagnosed ENKTL without any previous treatment history for the disease who were given non-anthracycline-based chemotherapies with or without upfront concurrent chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy with curative intent. A prognostic model to predict overall survival and progression-free survival on the basis of pretreatment clinical and laboratory characteristics was developed by filling a multivariable model on the basis of the dataset with complete data for the selected risk factors for an unbiased prediction model. The final model was applied to the patients who had complete data for the selected risk factors. We did a validation analysis of the prognostic model in an independent cohort. Findings We did multivariate analyses of 527 patients who were included from 38 hospitals in 11 countries in the training cohort. Analyses showed that age greater than 60 years, stage III or IV disease, distant lymph-node involvement, and non-nasal type disease were significantly associated with overall survival and progression-free survival. We used these data as the basis for the prognostic index of natural killer lymphoma (PINK), in which patients are stratified into low-risk (no risk factors), intermediate-risk (one risk factor), or high-risk (two or more risk factors) groups, which were associated with 3-year overall survival of 81% (95% CI 75–86), 62% (55–70), and 25% (20–34), respectively. In the 328 patients with data for Epstein-Barr virus DNA, a detectable viral DNA titre was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival. When these data were added to PINK as the basis for another prognostic index (PINK-E)—which had similar low-risk (zero or one risk factor), intermediate-risk (two risk factors), and high-risk (three or more risk factors) categories—significant associations with overall survival were noted (81% 95% CI 75–87%, 55% (44–66), and 28% (18–40%), respectively). These results were validated and confirmed in an independent cohort, although the PINK-E model was only significantly associated with the high-risk group compared with the low-risk group. Interpretation PINK and PINK-E are new prognostic models that can be used to develop risk-adapted treatment approaches for patients with ENKTL being treated in the contemporary era of non-anthracycline-based therapy. Funding Samsung Biomedical Research Institute.
Definitive chemoradiotherapy is associated with high local treatment failure rates, and surgical resection may be an appropriate salvage therapy. However, the efficacy and safety of salvage ...esophagectomy have not been elucidated fully. The clinical outcomes of salvage esophagectomy for locoregional failure after chemoradiotherapy were assessed.
Twelve patients who underwent salvage esophagectomy after chemoradiotherapy between January 2003 and November 2010 were included in this retrospective analysis. Baseline demographics and survivals of these patients were compared with 21 patients who did not receive salvage esophagectomy for locoregional failure only after chemoradiotherapy, identified from our own previous prospective trials.
The median age was 62.5 years (range 50 to 69) and all patients had squamous cell carcinoma. The median radiation dose was 54.0 Gy (range 41.4 to 66.0) and the median interval between completion of chemoradiation and surgery was 8.0 months (range 2.0 to 32.9). There were no in-hospital deaths. Pulmonary complication was the most common postoperative morbidity (42%), and anastomotic leakage occurred in 1 patient (8%). With a median follow-up period of 29.3 months (range 5.8 to 73.0), the overall 3-year survival rate was 58%. Patients with early pathologic stage disease (T1/2 and N0) showed significantly prolonged survival (p=0.03) compared with those with advanced pathologic stage (T3/T4 or N1). Patients with salvage esophagectomy had prolonged event-free survival and overall survival compared with those patients with locoregional failure who received primary chemotherapy or boost radiotherapy (p<0.001).
While salvage esophagectomy for locoregional failure after chemoradiotherapy should be employed with great caution, it appears to be a feasible and effective therapeutic option for highly selected patients, especially with early pathologic stage disease. Salvage esophagectomy can be recommended as the only current curative treatment option for patients with locoregional failure after chemoradiotherapy.
To assess, in a randomized, phase 2 trial, the efficacy and safety of chemoradiotherapy with or without induction chemotherapy (ICT) of S1 and oxaliplatin for esophageal cancer.
Patients with stage ...II, III, or IVA esophageal cancer were randomly allocated to either 2 cycles of ICT (oxaliplatin 130 mg/m(2) on day 1 and S1 at 40 mg/m(2) twice daily on days 1-14, every 3 weeks) followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) (46 Gy, 2 Gy/d with oxaliplatin 130 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 21 and S1 30 mg/m(2) twice daily, 5 days per week during radiation therapy) and esophagectomy (arm A), or the same CCRT followed by esophagectomy without ICT (arm B). The primary endpoint was the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate.
A total of 97 patients were randomized (arm A/B, 47/50), 70 of whom underwent esophagectomy (arm A/B, 34/36). The intention-to-treat pCR rate was 23.4% (95% confidence interval CI 11.2-35.6%) in arm A and 38% (95% CI 24.5% to 51.5%) in arm B. With a median follow-up duration of 30.3 months, the 2-year progression-free survival rate was 58.4% in arm A and 58.6% in arm B, whereas the 2-year overall survival rate was 60.7% and 63.7%, respectively. Grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia during CCRT was more common in arm A than in arm B (35.4% vs 4.1%). The relative dose intensity of S1 (89.5% ± 20.6% vs 98.3% ± 5.2%, P=.005) and oxaliplatin (91.4% ± 16.8% vs 99.0% ± 4.2%, P=.007) during CCRT was lower in arm A compared with arm B. Three patients in arm A, compared with none in arm B, died within 90 days after surgery.
Combination chemotherapy of S1 and oxaliplatin is an effective chemoradiotherapy regimen to treat esophageal cancer. However, we failed to show that the addition of ICT to the regimen can improve the pCR rate.