Efficacy and tolerance of pegaspargase, gemcitabine and oxaliplatin with sandwiched radiotherapy in the treatment of newly-diagnosed extranodal nature killer (NK)/T cell lymphoma

•It was a retrospective study of Extranodal nature killer (NK)/T cell lymphoma.•The therapy was pegaspargase, gemcitabine, oxaliplatin with sandwiched radiotherapy.•The study showed that it was highly effective and the toxicity was well tolerated.•The curative effect was durable during follow-up.

Extranodal nature killer (NK)/T cell lymphoma (ENKL), nasal type, is a highly aggressive and heterogeneous disease. Here we report a retrospective study of 38 newly-diagnosed ENKL patients treated with pegaspargase, gemcitabine, oxaliplatin (P-Gemox) and sandwiched radiotherapy in our department during 2012–2016. A median of 4 (range, 2–6) (total = 141) cycles of P-Gemox were administered. Interim restaging after at least 2 cycles showed complete remission (CR) rate of 23.68%, partial remission (PR) rate of 63.16%, giving an overall response rate (ORR) of 86.84%. On treatment completion, the ORR became 92.1% (CR = 86.84%, PR = 5.26%). Only one patient experienced disease progression during therapy. Multivariate analysis showed gender was a significant independent factor impacting on CR. Hematologic toxicity was common yet nonhematologic toxicity was mild, both of them can be well controlled by supportive treatments and only one treatment-related death was observed. At a median follow-up of 15.5 months, 4 patients (10.53%) experienced disease progression and died of disease. 1-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate and 1-year overall survival (OS) rate for the whole cohort were 86.7% and 86.6%. The P-Gemox regimen with sandwiched radiotherapy may be a promising option in the treatment of newly-diagnosed ENKL due to its high efficacy yet low toxicity.