[Retrospective analysis of 23 patients with angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma]

This study was aimed to investigate the therapy and prognostic factors of angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma (AITL). The clinical data of 23 patients with AITL were collected and the clinical features, laboratorial data, survival and prognostic factor were retrospectively analyzed. The results indicated that the median age of the patients was 62 years. Out of them 21 (91.3%) patients were with intermediate high and high risk according to the international prognostic index (IPI), 14 (60.9%) patients had extranodal disease and 5 (21.7%) patients had autoimmune disease. The overall response rate(ORR) for the whole group was 68.2%, the estimated 3-year and 5-year survival rates were 38.3% and 28.7% respectively. High-dose chemotherapy combined with auto-HSCT improved the outcome of young patients. Immunosuppressive therapy were used in replace/refractory patients. Age more than 65 years, IPI score, LDH level, the number of lymph node involvement, short-term effect, fibrinogen level, β2-MG level and bone marrow involvement were prognostic factors with statistical significance. Cox multivariate analysis showed that the level of LDH, β2-MG and bone marrow involevment were independent prognostic factors, IPI, PIT and mPIT were useful for stratified patients into different prognostic risk groups. It is concluded that AITL is aggressive disease occurred in older patients, and autoimmune dysfunction with infectibility, often appears in AITL patients with poor prognosis. The young patients can be benefited from initial intensive chemotherapy. High-dose chemotherapy combined with auto-HSCT may be a better choice for those patients. Immunosuppressive therapy can be used in replase/refractory patients.