Ocular manifestations of patients with extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma.

[AIMS] To investigate the ocular symptoms and characteristics exhibited by extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) patients.

[METHODS] One hundred sixty-eight patients with mature T/Natural Killer-cell Lymphoma (MTNKL) were recruited in this study, among whom 107 cases were ENKTL patients. A retrospective analysis was conducted on 12 of these ENKTL patients who had ocular symptoms. Results of ophthalmic and systemic auxiliary examinations, disease progression, and prognosis were documented.

[RESULTS] Ocular symptoms occurred in bilateral eyes (n = 4) and unilateral eyes (n = 8). The average interval from the diagnosis of ENKTL to the onset of ocular symptoms was 18.1 (±20.8) months. According to the ocular symptoms and auxiliary examinations, eight patients had ocular adnexal symptoms only, and four patients had intraocular symptoms only. All patients exhibited impaired vision. After receiving combined treatment with systemic chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and local ocular therapy, six patients died during the follow-up, and the median survival time from diagnosis was 17 (range: 2-45) months. Among the surviving six patients, five out of seven eyes had poor visual prognoses lower than hand motion (HM), while two maintained a visual acuity of 20/25.

[CONCLUSION] In this study, the ocular presentations can be easily confounded with conditions such as uveitis or orbital cellulitis, necessitating vigilant clinical differentiation. To date, the visual prognoses of ENKTL patients with ocular symptoms remain regrettably poor.