Radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy versus radiotherapy alone for early stage nasal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma:

Objective: To compare the efficacy of radiotherapy (RT) plus chemotherapy (CMT) versus RT alone for early stage nasal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma. Methods: All the eligible studies were searched by PubMed, Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library. The meta-analysis was performed to compare odds ratios (ORs) for overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Results: Eight studies were included in the meta-analysis. Chemotherapy group did not significantly differ from RT group. The pooled OR and 95% confidence interval (CI) for 1-year, 3-year, 5-year and 10-year OS was 1.25 [0.84, 1.87], 1.10 [0.76, 1.58], 0.83 [0.59, 1.17] and 1.05 [0.70, 1.56]. In addition, the combined OR and 95% CI for 5-year DFS and PFS were 0.96 [0.53, 1.73] and 0.71 [0.45, 1.12]. Conclusions: The current evidence suggests that CMT was not superior to RT alone. Radiotherapy may be still the main method in the treatment of early stage nasal NK/T-cell lymphoma.