Frontline autologous stem cell transplantation for peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma constitutes a heterogeneous group, with a low incidence and no standard frontline therapy. The current study evaluates the use of frontline autologous stem cell transplantation in 83 peripheral T-cell lymphomas included in the first and largest prospective trial. Results indicate that the procedure is feasible, with a low treatment-related mortality, and is associated with a better outcome than obtained with conventional chemotherapy. A general problem in this and other prospective trials is that approximately 30% of cases do not receive transplantation owing to disease progression. Thus, new approaches aimed at increasing the number of chemosensitive patients should be found, some of which are discussed in this article. For chemoresistant or relapsing patients, promising results have been reported using allogeneic stem cell transplantation or adding new agents.