Gemcitabine, dexamethasone, and cisplatin (GDP) as salvage chemotherapy for patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral T cell lymphoma-not otherwise specified

Standard therapeutic options for patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral T cell lymphoma—not otherwise specified (PTCL—NOS) remain unclear. There are few large cohort studies specifically focused on gemcitabine-based chemotherapy for PTCL—NOS. We retrospectively reviewed patients with relapsed or refractory PTCL—NOS who received salvage GDP (gemcitabine, dexamethasone, and cisplatin) chemotherapy at the Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) and Peking Union Medical College (PUMC), Beijing, China, from May 2008 to August 2014. Twenty-five patients were enrolled and analyzed. The median number of cycles of GDP chemotherapy per patient was four (range, 2–8 cycles). Overall response rate was 64.0% (16/25) with five achieved complete remission or complete remission unconfirmed. After a median follow-up of 9 months, median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival after relapse or progression (second-PFS) were 9.3 and 5.4 months. One-year PFS rate and 1-year OS rate were 27.4% and 43.9%, respectively. Median second-PFS was significantly longer in patients sensitive to GDP than the ones resistant to the treatment (10.3 vs. 2.8 months, p