Preclinical data of bortezomib and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs) in T-cell and NK/T-cell lymphoma cell lines are encouraging. Bortezomib and HDIs have also separately demonstrated activity in T and NK/T-cell lymphomas in phase II studies, leading to their separate developments in phase III studies. Demonstration of synergism in these 2 agents, in part due to their dependence on overlapping pathways, suggests that they should be explored as a combination, especially when treating a disease with a very unfavourable outcome. The purpose of this phase II study is to assess the efficacy of orally-administered panobinostat, a potent class I/II pan-deacetylase inhibitor with intravenous bortezomib in this patient population.