Impact of dexamethasone, etoposide, ifosfamide and carboplatin as concurrent chemoradiotherapy agents for nasal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma

The nasal type of extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL) is a rare aggressive lymphoma with poor prognosis. The reported 5-year overall survival for patients with localized nasal NKTCL treated with cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, oncovin and prednisone (CHOP) is <50%. Dexamethasone, etoposide, ifosfamide and carboplatin (DeVIC) chemotherapy was designed as a salvage chemotherapeutic regimen for aggressive lymphoma, comprising multidrug resistance (MDR) non-related agents and etoposide, which is considered to be effective against nasal NKTCL. An experimental chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is currently being designed using DeVIC as the concurrent chemotherapeutic regimen for nasal NKTCL. The aim of this study was to examine the initial outcome of this treatment and evaluate its effectiveness and feasibility. Six patients (age range, 29-82 years; median age, 68 years) were treated with CRT using DeVIC between April, 2004 and February, 2010. The median follow-up was 56 months (range, 11-80 months). All patients were administered 3-6 cycles of full-dose DeVIC regimen. The chemotherapy was administered concurrently with radiotherapy (RT) and was repeated every 3 weeks. RT was performed using 4-MV X-ray and the prescription dose was 46-50 Gy/23-25 fx (median, 50 Gy). After treatment, all patients were followed up at our hospital. A complete remission was achieved in 5 patients (83%) at 1 month after treatment. The 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were 100%. No severe adverse effect (grade ≥3) was reported. In conclusion, the initial results of the experimental CRT with DeVIC for this type of aggressive lymphoma were very encouraging. Further investigation is required on concurrent CRT with 50 Gy/25 fx and 3 cycles of DeVIC comprising non-MDR agents and etoposide for nasal NKTCL.