Background: Nodal peripheral T cell lymphoma (PTCL) confers a dismal prognosis when treated with conventional chemotherapy. Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) seems a reasonable alternative in eligible patients. Nevertheless, a consensus on the role of ASCT as the first-line consolidation therapy for nodal PTCL patients has not been reached so far.
Methods: A quantitative meta-analysis was performed via a systematic search in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and The Cochrane Library. The overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), hazard ratio (HR), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were compared and calculated from database inception to September 2021.
Results: Twelve articles were eligible. The results showed that ASCT could improve the survival of patients compared with chemotherapy alone. In terms of subtype analysis, results showed that angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma (AITL) patients could benefit more from chemotherapy followed by ASCT. Statistical differences were also confirmed for OS and PFS in different remission status, clinical stage, performance status (PS), chemotherapy regimen, and gender.
Conclusion: ASCT could serve as the first-line consolidation treatment strategy for nodal PTCL patients, especially AITL patients. Early clinical stage, good PS status, CR before transplantation, CHOEP regimen, and female patients may indicate a better outcome.
Keywords: ASCT; Autologous stem cell transplantation; PTCL; first-line treatment; peripheral T cell lymphoma.