A second study using CHOP-like regimens or one of these regimens plus methotrexate also produced better results with the latter regimens: 5 year survival rates for the CHOP-like and CHOP-like plus methotrexate regimens were 34.4% and 45.7%, respectively. A review of 105 PEL cases reported median survival times, 1 year, 3 year, and 5 year survival rates of 4.8 months, 30%, 18%, and 17%, respectively. In this study, patients with advanced Ann Arbor Stage III or IV disease had a particularly poor survival rate at 1 year of 25%; this compared to a rate of 42% for patients with stage I or II disease.Anti-viral drugs directed against Cytomegalovirus (i.e. cidofovir, ganciclovir, and valganciclovir) have been reported to produce complete presumed temporary responses in individual cases of PEL while drugs directed against HIV in patients with HIV+ PEL have achieved presumed temporary median response and 5 year survival rates of 0.7 months and 28%, respectively. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guideline recommends treating HIV/AIDS-related PEL with antiviral therapy in combination with aggressive chemotherapy regimens such as DA-EPOCH, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and etoposide, or CHOP. Rituximab, a monoclonal antibody directed against and killing CD20-expressing cells, appears to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy regimens in treating cases of PEL that evidence CD20-positive malignant cells such as Type II PEL. It has been suggested that regimens that include rituximab might improve the treatment of not only CD+ Type II PEL but also the uncommon cases of CD20+ Type I PEL and all cases of CD- PEL.
The efficacy of rituximab in CD- PEL may be due to the ability of this antibody to kill non-malignant CD+ 20 lymphocytes and thereby their potential to promote the disease. A National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical study is in its recruiting phase to study the efficacy of DA-EPOCH (which includes rituximab) plus lenalidomide in treating PEL. Current studies are also examining the effects of drug-based inhibition of the signaling pathways that are overactive in the malignant plasmablasts in PEL (see Pathophysiology section) for their therapeutic effectiveness. History
PEL was first described in 1989 as a malignant B cell-derived non-Hodgkin lymphoma that developed in three individuals afflicted with HIV/AIDS. In 1995, a group of researchers found DNA sequences that identified KSHV/HHV8 sequences in 8 lymphomas in the malignant cells of patients infected with the HIV; all 8 patients had effusions containing malignant cells in their pleural, pericardial, or peritoneal spaces and had malignant cells in their effusions that evidenced the Epstein-Barr viral genome. Nadir and colleagues termed this syndrome of findings pulmonary effusion lymphoma in 1996. During the years following these initial reports, several cases of PEL were found to be  KSHV/HHV8-negative, i.e. occurring in individuals with no evidence of being infected with KSHV/HHV8, or to be manifested by solid tumors that were not associated with effusions, i.e. cases of extracavitary PEL. See also
List of hematologic conditions

References


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