Low serum cholesterol levels predict inferior prognosis and improve prognostic index scoring for peripheral T-cell lymphoma, unspecified

•Existing PIT scores could not distinguish low, intermediate and high-risk groups in Chinese peripheral T-cell lymphomas, unspecified patients.•Low serum cholesterol levels predict inferior prognosis in peripheral T-cell lymphomas, unspecified.•A new risk model, called PITC based on low-level high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and PIT scoring.•PITC was superior to PIT in progression-free survival and overall survival. Peripheral T-cell lymphomas, unspecified (PTCL−U) is a heterogeneous group of non-Hodgkin lymphomas, arising from the transformation of mature, post-thymic T-cells. Prognostic index for PTCL−U (PIT) is based on Europeans and may not be applicable for Chinese PTCL-U patients. Besides, low circulating cholesterol concentration is associated with elevated cancer incidence and mortality. The purpose of our study was to assess the prognostic value of serum lipid levels in PTCL−U and improve PIT. We screened the prognostic factors associated with progression−free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) by multivariate Cox regression analysis in ninety−one enrolled patients. The results showed that low-level high−density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL−C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL−C) were associated with unfavorable OS. Furthermore, we developed a new risk model, PITC, based on low-level HDL−C, LDL−C and PIT. In Chinese PTCL−U, PITC was superior to PIT in PFS and OS. In conclusion, serum cholesterol levels may be good candidates for predicting prognosis in PTCL−U.