How’s going on the T-Cell Brazil project

Abstract

Lymphomas are a large, heterogeneous and infrequent group of neoplasms. Peripheral t-cell lymphomas (PTCL) is still rarer, and it makes up about 10-15% of lymphoid malignancies. Its prognosis is poor and remains a challenge. In April 2017, the first Brazilian collaborative effort was created to collect data from T-cell Lymphoma patients diagnosed in the five distinct macro-regions of Brazil. To better understand PTCL, according to the revised WHO-2017 classification, excluding Mycosis fungoides, Sézary syndrome, and chronic Lymphoproliferative disorders, all histological subtypes diagnosed from January 2015 to December 2022 will be enrolled. Tissue biopsied, immunophenotypic markers from consecutive patients at each site will be reviewed by panels of expert hematopathologists every year. So far, 381 cases were enrolled by 32 Brazilian centers, most of them are from the Southeast and South region. Twenty-two cases were not evaluable due to lack of complete data; hence, 359 were analyzed. The overall survival at 24-month was 52% (95% CI: 46-58%) and progression-free survival 37% (95% CI: 31-43%) with a median time of follow-up of 10 months (0.2-64). T-cell Brazil Project has many challenges to overcome, mainly due to its vast territory and its disparity. However, we already have another sixteen centers waiting for approval in their Ethics Committees. It was created a network around the country, mainly among the pathologists, with educational goals and exchange of experiences. It is crucial to obtain knowledge of local epidemiology to optimize resources, design clinical trials, and identify minority entities, contributing to increasing the quality o