Open AccessProgress in the treatment of NK-cell lymphoma/leukemia
Author(s) -
Ayumi Fujimoto,
Ritsuro Suzuki
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of cancer metastasis and treatment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2394-4722
DOI - 10.20517/2394-4722.2021.157
Subject(s) - lymphoma , medicine , leukemia , chemoradiotherapy , disease , aggressive lymphoma , refractory (planetary science) , transplantation , oncology , chemotherapy , immunology , rituximab , biology , astrobiology
Natural killer (NK)/T cell lymphoma includes two major subtypes of disease, specifically extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKL) and aggressive NK cell leukemia (ANKL). Both are strongly associated with Epstein-Barr virus and are prevalent in East Asia and Latin America. Except for that of limited-stage ENKL, the prognosis of both diseases was poor in the previous decade. The advent of non-anthracycline-based chemoradiotherapy has contributed to an improvement in ENKL prognosis, but there is still room for further treatment progress. Recently, the high efficacy of PD-1 antibody was reported in relapsed or refractory ENKL patients. This was later supported by the finding that PD-L1/PD-L2 genetic alterations are frequently observed in ENKL and ANKL patients. Due to the rarity of the disease, a standard treatment for ANKL remains to be established. Currently, allogeneic stem cell transplantation is the only curative treatment, and this is even applicable to chemo-resistant ANKL patients. In this review, we focus on recent treatment approaches for NK/T cell lymphomas including novel agents.