Unfavorable prognosis of elderly patients with early-stage extranodal nasal-type NK/T-cell lymphoma.

BACKGROUND Extranodal nasal-type NK (natural killer)/T-cell lymphoma in elderly patients is rare, and its prognosis is unclear. This study aims to investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of this lymphoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS We analyzed 24 patients (age, >60 years old) with early-stage extranodal nasal-type NK/T-cell lymphoma. Among these patients, 23 received radiotherapy alone (n = 15) or radiotherapy and chemotherapy (n = 8) and 1 received chemotherapy alone. RESULTS Elderly patients with early-stage extranodal nasal-type NK/T-cell lymphoma were characterized by male predominance, good performance, large proportion of localized disease, more comorbidities, low-risk international prognostic index, and unfavorable prognosis. The 5-year cancer-specific survival (CSS), overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS) rates for all patients were 54.3%, 42.0%, and 40.2%, respectively. The 5-year CSS, OS, and PFS rates were 43.5%, 36.6%, and 34.1% in patients who received radiotherapy alone, and 50%, 50%, and 50% in patients who received radiotherapy and chemotherapy, respectively (P = 0.852 for CSS, P = 0.801 for OS, and P = 0.694 for PFS). Four patients died of treatment-related mortality. CONCLUSION Elderly patients with early-stage extranodal nasal-type NK/T-cell lymphoma exhibit poor prognosis and need special attention because of high treatment-related mortality.