[Advances of treatment for nature killer/T-cell lymphoma]

NK/T cell lymphoma (NKTCL) is a rare type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, occurs more frequently in Asia and Latin America. In China, NKTCL accounts for 30.1% in T-NHL and is highly related with EBV (Epstein-Barr virus) infection. This disease is highly aggressive, not sensitive to chemotherapy, with poor prognosis. The mean survival time is about 12-38 months. It is important to accurately assess the patient's stage of progression for an optimal treatment. For stageI-II, the combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy have better therapeutic effects. As for stage III-IV NKTCL, especially for non-nasal and aggressive subtypes, the chemotherapy is the main treatment method. For advanced disease, combining therapy is the most commonly selected approach, such as high-intensity chemotherapy combined with radiation and a regimen containing L-asparaginase (L-Asp) will benefit to patients. Recently, some studies have demonstrated that promising outcomes have been found in selected cases by high-dose chemotherapy supplemented with auto-or allo-HSCT. Targeting therapy is also an optimal choice. This review mainly focuses on the advance of treatment for NKTCL.