There are multiple immediate impacts from this work. First, because there is limited data to guide how doctors choose or sequence treatments in nodal T-cell lymphoma–and no universally accepted standard of care–our findings can help identify patients with TTR12 as a high-risk group. These patients may have poorer outcomes and could benefit from the earlier use of non-chemotherapy agents in their treatment course.

Second, because nodal T-cell lymphomas are rare, it’s difficult to run large studies that follow patients over many years. For this reason, TTR12 may be a helpful early sign of how well patients might do overall, allowing researchers to see potential treatment benefits sooner. However, more research is needed to confirm that TTR12 can reliably serve as an early measure in clinical trials. It could also help improve how trials are designed by matching patients to studies where they’re most likely to benefit.