Historic outcomes for patients with relapsed or refractory nodal-based T-cell lymphomas are poor, with survival generally measured in months in multiple reports from the late 20th and early 21st century. Until recently, salvage strategies have mostly been borrowed from other aggressive lymphomas. However, dedicated investigations into the pathogenesis of T-cell lymphomas have resulted in an outpouring of therapies that target these diseases in biologically rational strategies. In particular, an evolving appreciation of the multiple complex oncogenic pathways and epigenetic changes that underlie these diseases has led to numerous agents targeting these aberrancies. Moreover, large reports of salvage allogeneic stem cell transplants in T-cell lymphoma have now been published, showing that adaptive immunotherapy is a potentially curative strategy for patients with relapsed or refractory disease. This review highlights therapeutic advances for relapsed or refractory T-cell lymphomas, including cellular therapy and allogeneic stem cell transplant, and provides a framework for management.
Keywords: T-cell; T-cell lymphoma; anaplastic; large-cell; lymphoma.