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A neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio above 3.0, a known predictor of worse outcome in cancer patients, showed a trend towards being correlated with worse prognosis in DLBCL patients, but this was less evident for HL patients. Here, NETs were measured in plasma from patients with DLBCL and Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL), and correlated to blood counts and clinical outcome of the patients. EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL CORRELATION BETWEEN NEUTROPHIL EXTRACELLULAR TRAPS AND PROGNOSIS IN PATIENTS WITH DIFFUSE LARGE B-CELL LYMPHOMA AND HODGKIN'S LYMPHOMA. [Extracted from the article]

Objective TRIM21 (also known as Ro52) is an autoantigen in rheumatic disease and is predominantly expressed in leucocytes. Overexpression is associated with decreased proliferation, and the TRIM21 gene maps to a tumour suppressor locus. We therefore investigated the expression of TRIM21 in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma ( DLBCL) and its potential usefulness as a prognostic biomarker. Materials and methods TRIM21 expression levels were assessed by immunohistochemistry in lymphoma biopsies from three cohorts of patients with DLBCL: 42 patients with rheumatic disease treated with a cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin and prednisone ( CHOP)-like regimen, 76 CHOP-treated and 196 rituximab- CHOP-treated nonrheumatic patients. Expression was correlated with clinical and biomedical parameters. TRIM21 expression was assessed in relation to lymphocyte proliferation by quantitative PCR and correlated with 3H-thymidine incorporation and propidium iodine staining. Results TRIM21 expression levels differed in the lymphomas compared to normal lymphoid tissue, with reduced expression correlating with shorter overall survival in all three cohorts. In the two larger cohorts, progression-free survival was assessed and was also found to correlate with TRIM21 expression. The association was independent of commonly used clinical prognostic scores, lymphoma subtype and several previously reported prognostic biomarkers. In agreement with this clinical observation, we noted an inverse correlation between TRIM21 expression and proliferation of leucocytes in vitro. Conclusions We show that loss of TRIM21 expression is associated with more aggressive lymphoma and increased proliferation, whereas maintenance of TRIM21 expression is associated with better prognosis in patients with DLBCL. Based on our findings, we suggest that TRIM21 should be considered as a novel biomarker for lymphoma characterization and for predicting patient survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has become clear that the biological and clinical behaviour of malignant lymphoma is not only determined by the properties of the tumour cells themselves but are also largely by the interaction of the tumour cells with their nonmalignant microenvironment. The composition and functional status of the tumour microenvironment is highly variable between different classes of malignant lymphoma and may provide both growth-supportive and growth suppressive signals via components of the adaptive and innate immune response. In this review, the functional interactions and clinical consequences of these insights are discussed in indolent and aggressive B-cell lymphomas and in classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-germinal center (non-GC) phenotype is an adverse prognostic factor in chemotherapy (CT)-treated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients. To determine how high-dose therapy (HDT) supported with auto-SCT as first line therapy influences GC-associated outcome in young high-risk DLBCL patients GC and non-GC phenotypes were determined immunohistochemically from 63 patients. Of these, 29 primary high-risk DLBCL patients were treated with auto-SCT, whereas 34 CT-treated patients served as a control group. Consistent with previous studies, non-GC phenotype was associated with adverse outcome in CT-treated high-risk patients. In contrast, immunohistochemical classification by cell of origin did not associate with survival after auto-SCT. When the impact of treatment on the predictive value of cell of origin was analyzed, the non-GC patients, who received HDT, had a better failure-free survival (FFS) and overall survival (OS) than the patients treated with CT alone. In multivariate analyses, both age-adjusted International Prognostic Index (aaIPI) and treatment were independent prognostic factors for FFS and OS. For the patients with GC phenotype, the influence of auto-SCT on survival was not significant. The data imply that auto-SCT can overcome the adverse prognostic impact of the non-GC phenotype in patients with high-risk DLBCL and warrant additional prospective studies.Bone Marrow Transplantation (2008) 42, 93–98; doi:10.1038/bmt.2008.92; published online 7 April 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peripheral T cell lymphomas (PTCL) have a poorer prognosis after conventional treatment than do high-grade B cell lymphomas. The place for high-dose therapy (HDT) with autologous stem cell support in these patients is still not clear. Forty patients, 10 women and 30 men, median age 41.5 years (range 16–61) with PTCL were treated with HDT and autologous stem cell support at The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo, Norway and The University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden, between February 1990 and September 1999. The histologic subtypes were: PTCL unspecified, 20 patients; intestinal, two patients; angioimmunoblastic (AILD), two patients; angiocentric, two patients and anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), 14 patients. All patients had chemosensitive disease and had received anthracycline-containing regimens prior to transplantation. At the time of HDT, 17 patients were in first PR or CR and 23 were in second or third PR or CR. Conditioning regimens were BEAM in 15 patients, BEAC in 14 patients, cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation (TBI) in eight patients, BEAC, without etoposide and TBI in one patient and mitoxantrone and melphalan in two patients. There were three (7.5%) treatment-related deaths. The estimated overall survival (OS) at 3 years was 58%, the event-free survival (EFS) 48% and the relapse-free survival (RFS) 56%, with a median follow-up of 36 months (range 7–100) for surviving patients. The patients with ALCL tended to have a better prognosis compared to those with other PTCL subtypes, OS 79% vs 44%, respectively. In conclusion, patients with chemosensitive PTCL who are failing to achieve CR with first-line chemotherapy or are in relapse can successfully be treated with HDT and autologous stem cell support. Bone Marrow Transplantation (2001) 27, 711–716. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor on folate-metabolizing genes in lymphoma patients is presented.