Early application of related SCT might improve clinical outcome in adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.

Allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (allo-HSCT) is a curative treatment for aggressive adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). Considering the dismal prognosis associated with conventional chemotherapies, early application of allo-HSCT might be beneficial for patients with ATLL. However, no previous study has addressed the optimal timing of allo-HSCT from related donors. Hence, to evaluate the impact of timing of allo-HSCT for patients with ATLL, we retrospectively analyzed data from patients with ATLL who received an allo-HSCT from a related donor. The median age was 52 years. Patients were grouped according to the interval from diagnosis to allo-HSCT: early transplant group, <100 days, n=72; late transplant group, ⩾100 days, n=428. The corresponding constituents of disease status were not statistically different between the two groups (P=0.11). The probability of OS in the early transplant group was significantly higher than that in the late transplant group (4-year OS, 49.3% vs 31.2%). Multivariate analysis revealed that late allo-HSCT was an unfavorable prognostic factor for OS (hazard ratio, 1.46; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.01-2.11; P=0.04). Despite the limitations of a retrospective study, it might be acceptable to consider early application of allo-HSCT for ATLL.