Peripheral T cell and natural killer (NK) T cell lymphomas: a clinicopathological study from a single Australian centre

MicroRNA Signatures in Diagnosis and Prognosis of Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma

Cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) can have clinical and histological features resembling benign inflammatory dermatosis and can be difficult to diagnose. Very limited biomarkers are available for CTCL prognosis. We aimed to identify microRNA (miR) signatures to facilitate diagnostic and prognostic evaluations of CTCL. A cross-platform miR microarray identified 10 miRs that were differentially expressed between CTCL and benign inflammatory dermatosis patients. Subsequent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction validation was used to generate a 5-miR-based diagnosing classifier, which showed high diagnostic accuracy in CTCL (area under the curve = 0.985 and 0.956 for training and testing set, respectively). Association between miR expressions and patient prognosis was studied. miR-155 and miR-200b were significantly associated with overall survival in CTCL patients, outperformed Ki-67. miR expressions were combined with Ki-67 to create a classifier for 5-year overall survival in CTCL patients. Our work provided miR signatures to facilitate CTCL diagnosis and prognosis with satisfying accuracy.

Primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma

Primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma (PC-ALCL) is a CD30+ lymphoproliferative disorder (LPD) of the skin with a relatively good prognosis in the absence of high-stage disease. CD30+ LPDs comprise approximately 25%-30% of primary cutaneous lymphomas and as a group represent the second most common clonal T-cell neoplasm of the skin behind mycosis fungoides. Diagnosis of PC-ALCL relies strongly on clinicopathologic correlation given the potential morphologic, clinical and molecular overlap with the other cutaneous CD30+ LPD, lymphomatoid papulosis, and more aggressive hematolymphoid neoplasms.

Predictors of survival of natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type, in a non-Asian population: a single cancer centre experience

Background

Natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL), part of T-cell and NK-cell neoplasms in the World Health Organisation (WHO) classification, is an aggressive lymphoma with poor prognosis more predominantly seen in Asian and South American countries. This study evaluates the factors associated with survival among patients with newly diagnosed NKTCL in Peru.

Methods

Information was abstracted from medical records (MR) for all NKTCL patients >13 years of age at the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas (INEN) between 2002 and 2011. The estimate of the survival curves was performed by the Kaplan-Meier method, and the difference was computed by the log-rank test.

Results

Around 226 MR were reviewed, 153 met the selection criteria, the median age was 40 years (14–84). The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 20 months, five year PFS was 42.6%, univariable analysis (UA) showed statistical significance (p < 0.05) for male sex, non-nasal primary site, advanced clinical stages, B symptoms, poor performance status, regional nodal involvement (RNI). In the multivariate analysis the only poor prognostic factors was primary non-nasal (Hazard ratio (HR) = 2.40, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.43– 4.02, P = 0.01). The median overall survival (OS) was 49 months, five year OS was 48.9%, UA showed statistical significance for non-nasal primary site, advanced clinical stages, B symptoms, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) > normal, RNI and local tumour invasion. In the multivariate analysis, primary non-nasal was the only poor prognostic factor with HR = 2.57, 95% CI = 1.37–4.83, P = 0.03.

Conclusions

In Peru, OS of NKTCL is similar to other countries. This result suggests that non-nasal NKTCL is the only poor prognostic factor of OS and PFS.