[Expression of dendritic cell marker CD21 is a positive prognostic factor in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze CD21 expression in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and to explore its relationship with the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis. METHODS: The clinical data from 80 DLBCL patients who were treated in First Hospital of Jilin University from June 2005 to September 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. The cases were subjected to immunohistochemical staining (SP method) for Ki-67, CD20, CD79a, CD3, CD43, CD5, cyclin D1, bcl-2, CD10, bcl-6, GCET-1, FOXP-1 and MUM-1 protein expression in the tumor tissue. Immunohistochemistry was also used to detect CD21 expression in the tumor tissue. SPSS 18.0 was used to analyze the relationship between CD21 expression and various clinical factors, and the relationship between various clinical factors including CD21 and overall survival. RESULTS: In the patients aged under 60 years, the incidence of CD21(+) lymphoma (64.0%, 16/25) was significantly higher than that of CD21(-) lymphoma (38.2%, 21/55). There were more CD21(+) lymphoma patients who were at clinical stages I-II (52.0%, 13/25) than patients with CD21(-)lymphomas (23.6%, 13/55). There were also more CD21(+) lymphoma patients (68.0%, 17/25) having less than two extranodal sites involvement than CD21(-)lymphoma patients (41.8%, 23/55). In addition, there were more CD21(+) lymphoma patients with IPI 0-2 (68.0%, 17/25) than CD21(-)lymphoma patients (41.8%, 23/55). There were more CD21(+) lymphoma patients with GCB subtype (60.0%, 15/25) than CD21(-)lymphoma patients (23.6%, 13/55). Death related to DLBCL was less in CD21(+) lymphoma patients (32.0%, 8/25) than CD21(-) lymphoma patients (56.4%, 31/55). Univariate analysis showed that these clinical pathological characteristics affected the overall survival of DLBCL patients, including age, ECOG score, LDH, extranodal involvement, IPI index, CD21 expression, treatment option and efficacy (P < 0.05) . Cox multivariate analysis showed that ECOG score, LDH, extranodal involvement, CD21 expression were closely related to prognosis, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Among the 80 patients, the overall survival (OS) of CD21(+) lymphoma patients was significantly higher than that of CD21(-) lymphoma patients. CONCLUSIONS: The expression of CD21 is associated with young age at onset, early clinical stage, small number of involvement and low IPI index. The OS and median overall survival of CD21(+) lymphoma patients are significantly higher than those of CD21(-) patients. CD21 expression, ECOG score, LDH, extranodal involvement are independent prognostic factors in DLBCL, and in particular, the expression of CD21 is more significant in the prognosis of DLBCL patients.

Identification of prognostic factors in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

To identify prognostic factors for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), specifically those classified into conflicting subgroups by Hans' and Choi's classification algorithms. We retrospectively reviewed clinical and pathological data of 154 patients diagnosed with de novo DLBCL in the First Hospital of Jilin University from January 2004 to September 2011. All cases were classified into subgroups based on Hans' and Choi's algorithms with immunohistochemical markers. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The correlation between various clinicopathological factors and 5-year survival rate, the correlation between those factors with the International Prognostic Index, the concordance between Hans' and Choi's approach was evaluated. The survival in different subtypes as classified by Hans' or Choi's approach was mapped. RESULTS: The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance score 2-5, positive Bcl-2 expression, negative CD10 expression or negative Bcl-6 expression significantly correlated with worse prognosis. The two algorithms showed good consistency (83% concordance, Kappa = 0.660, P < 0.001). By both classifications, the 5-year overall survival rate in germinal center B-cell-like subtype (GCB) lymphoma is significantly higher than that in the non-GCB subtype. There were 25 cases assigned to conflicting subtypes by the two approaches. Among these 25 cases, ECOG 2-5, positive Bcl-2 expression, negative CD10 expression, or negative Bcl-6 expression significantly correlated with worse prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: ECOG 2-5, positive Bcl-2 expression, negative CD10 expression, or negative Bcl-6 expression are independent markers for poor prognosis of DLBCL patients. There were 15% cases assigned to conflicting subgroups based on the two algorithms. For these cases, ECOG 2-5, positive Bcl-2 expression, negative CD10 expression, or negative Bcl-6 expression still significantly correlate with poor prognosis.