Bendamustine in peripheral T-cell lymphoma

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is a group of diseases with poor outcome and few therapeutic options. Three main studies described bendamustine in these patients: one prospective phase II study, Bently and two retrospectives Italian and French studies. Patients were mainly angioimmunoblastic, PTCL-not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS) and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The majority of patients had disseminated disease and extranodal localizations refractory or in relapsed with over one previous line therapy. Overall response rate (ORR) was 32% to 55% with complete response (CR) rate of 10% to 28%. Median progression free survival and overall survival (OS) were 3.1 to 3.6 and 4.4 to 6.2 months in different studies. Bendamustine as single agent could be considered as an accessible therapeutic option for relapsed or refractory PTCL (R/R PTCL). It can be a way to bring the eligible patients to transplant. In another way, this treatment could be administered for elderly patients. Combinations of bendamustine with other drugs warrant further evaluation.