The role of autologous stem cell transplantation in peripheral T cell lymphoma: a long-term follow-up single-center experience.

Purpose: Peripheral T cell lymphomas (PTCL) are a rare and heterogeneous group of aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphomas, showing a generally poor prognosis. In this retrospective analysis, we aimed to investigate the impact of autologous stem cell transplantation (autoSCT) in PTCL.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of 58 consecutive unselected PTCL patients aged 21-71 years undergoing autoSCT as first-line consolidation as well as in the relapse setting was performed.

Results: The median follow-up time was 67 months. A 5-year overall survival (OS) of 53% and a 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) after autoSCT of 44% was achieved. The overall relapse rate after autoSCT was 50%. On multivariate analysis, standard baseline characteristics such as age, disease stage and international prognostic index (IPI) score failed to predict outcome in our cohort. First-line treatment with autoSCT was not associated with a benefit in OS when compared to patients receiving autoSCT at relapse. Notably, autoSCT seemed to be a suitable approach even for older transplant-eligible patients (aged ≥ 60 years), with a similar 5-year OS of 49% when compared to younger patients.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that autoSCT can achieve long-term survival in PTCL patients even after relapse and should also be considered for eligible older patients.