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Outcomes of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with monomorphic epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma: retrospective study from the Adult Lymphoma Working Group of the Japan Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 61, pages 110–113 (2026)Cite this article

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Monomorphic epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma (MEITL) is a rare, aggressive intestinal lymphoma with a poor prognosis. It was previously categorized as type II enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphoma (EATL) [1,2,3]. Unlike type I EATL, which is strongly associated with celiac disease, MEITL is not linked to gluten sensitivity and is particularly prevalent in East Asian countries, in which celiac disease is rare [4]. In Japan, MEITL accounts for the majority of primary intestinal T-cell lymphomas. Despite advances in lymphoma therapy, outcomes remain extremely poor, with anthracycline-based chemotherapy regimens achieving a median overall survival (OS) < 1 year [2, 4,5,6], necessitating more effective treatment approaches. Although chemotherapy followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) can improve OS, reports remain limited [7,8,9,10]. Furthermore, studies on transplantation outcomes for EATL have been conducted in Europe, where type I EATL predominates. However, comprehensive reports on transplant outcomes for MEITL are lacking. Therefore, this study retrospectively analyzed the clinical outcomes of patients with MEITL using the national data registry of the Japanese Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.

This study included patients aged ≥16 years with MEITL who underwent first autologous (auto) or allogeneic (allo) stem cell transplantation between 2000 and 2017. All transplantation data were obtained from the Transplant Registry Unified Management Program, which compiles clinical data on HSCTs performed in Japan. Outcomes included OS, relapse, non-relapse mortality (NRM), and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Further details of methods are described in Supplementary Methods.

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Fig. 1: Outcomes of the autologous or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation group.

Data availability

The data of this study are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions that it exceeds the scope of the recipient/donor’s consent for research use in the registry. Data may be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and with permission of the Japanese Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy/Japanese Data Center for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all physicians and staff members of the collaborating institutes of the Japanese Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. The authors would like to thank Enago (www.enago.com) for the English language review.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology, Japanese Red Cross Kyoto Daiichi Hospital, Kyoto, Japan

    Kodai Kuriyama

  2. Department of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

    Mizuki Watanabe

  3. Department of Hematology, Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital & Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan

    Takeshi Okatani

  4. Department of Hematology, Sapporo Hokuyu Hospital, Sapporo, Japan

    Shuichi Ota

  5. Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Kanagawa Cancer Center, Yokohama, Japan

    Hiroyuki Takahashi

  6. Department of Hematology, Aomori Prefectural Central Hospital, Aomori, Japan

    Kohmei Kubo

  7. Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan

    Hideyuki Nakazawa

  8. Department of Hematology and Oncology, Konan Kosei Hospital, Konan, Japan

    Kazutaka Ozeki

  9. Department of Hematology and Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Junya Kanda

  10. Department of Hematology, Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital, PIIF Tazuke-kofukai, Osaka, Japan

    Toshiyuki Kitano

  11. Department of Hematology, Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, Kobe, Japan

    Nobuhiro Hiramoto

  12. Department of Hematology, Kitakyushu City Hospital Organization, Kitakyushu Municipal Medical Center, Kitakyushu, Japan

    Yasufumi Uehara

  13. Department of Hematology, Oita Prefectural Hospital, Oita, Japan

    Yasuhiko Miyazaki

  14. Division of Hematology, Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Japan

    Yoshinobu Kanda

  15. Department of Hematology and Oncology, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, Hirosima, Japan

    Tatsuo Ichinohe

  16. Japanese Data Center for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, Nagakute, Japan

    Yoshiko Atsuta

  17. Department of Registry Science for Transplant and Cellular Therapy, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Nagakute, Japan

    Yoshiko Atsuta

  18. Department of Hematology, Kawasaki Medical School, Kurashiki, Japan

    Eisei Kondo

Authors
  1. Kodai Kuriyama
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  2. Mizuki Watanabe
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  3. Takeshi Okatani
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  4. Shuichi Ota
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  5. Hiroyuki Takahashi
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  6. Kohmei Kubo
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  7. Hideyuki Nakazawa
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  8. Kazutaka Ozeki
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  9. Junya Kanda
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  10. Toshiyuki Kitano
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  11. Nobuhiro Hiramoto
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  12. Yasufumi Uehara
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  13. Yasuhiko Miyazaki
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  14. Yoshinobu Kanda
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  15. Tatsuo Ichinohe
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  16. Yoshiko Atsuta
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  17. Eisei Kondo
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Contributions

K Kuriyama designed the study. K Kuriyama analyzed the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. MW, TO, YK, and EK provided substantial advice on the content of the manuscript. K Kuriyama, MW, TO, SO, HT, K Kubo, HN, KO, JK, TK, NH, YU, YM, YK, TI, YA and EK interpreted the data, reviewed the manuscript, and contributed to data collection. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kodai Kuriyama.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

HT received honoraria from AstraZeneca plc, Bristol Myers Squibb, Chugai Pharma, Janssen, Kyowa Kirin, Meiji Seika Pharma, Nippon Shinyaku, Mundipharma, Ono Pharmaceutical, SymBio pharmaceuticals, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Eisai, Fujimoto and Sanofi. KO has received speaker honoraria from Janssen. The remaining authors declare no competing financial interests associated with this study.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All methods were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and relevant guidelines and regulations. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Japanese Red Cross Kyoto Daiichi Hospital (approval number: 1084). All participating patients provided written informed consent to the Japanese Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at the time of registration.

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Kuriyama, K., Watanabe, M., Okatani, T. et al. Outcomes of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with monomorphic epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma: retrospective study from the Adult Lymphoma Working Group of the Japan Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. Bone Marrow Transplant 61, 110–113 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-025-02752-6

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