Key Points• DLBCL patients with MYC/BCL2 coexpression demonstrate inferior prognosis and high-risk gene expression signatures.Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is stratified into prognostically favorable germinal center B-cell (GCB)-like and unfavorable activated B-cell (ABC)-like subtypes based on gene expression signatures. In this study, we analyzed 893 de novo DLBCL patients treated with R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone). We show that MYC/BCL2 protein coexpression occurred significantly more commonly in the ABC subtype. Patients with the ABC or GCB subtype of DLBCL had similar prognoses with MYC/BCL2 coexpression and without MYC/BCL2 coexpression. Consistent with the notion that the prognostic difference between the 2 subtypes is attributable to MYC/BCL2 coexpression, there is no difference in gene expression signatures between the 2 subtypes in the absence of MYC/BCL2 coexpression. DLBCL with MYC/BCL2 coexpression demonstrated a signature of marked downregulation of genes encoding extracellular matrix proteins, those involving matrix deposition/remodeling and cell adhesion, and upregulation of proliferation-associated genes. We conclude that MYC/BCL2 coexpression in DLBCL is associated with an aggressive clinical course, is more common in the ABC subtype, and contributes to the overall inferior prognosis of patients with ABC-DLBCL. In conclusion, the data suggest that MYC/BCL2 coexpression, rather than cell-of-origin classification, is a better predictor of prognosis in patients with DLBCL treated with R-CHOP. (Blood. 2013;121(20):4021-4031)

No abstract

TP53 mutation is an independent marker of poor prognosis in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) therapy. However, its prognostic value in the rituximab immunochemotherapy era remains undefined. In the present study of a large cohort of DLBCL patients treated with rituximab plus CHOP (R-CHOP), we show that those with TP53 mutations had worse overall and progression-free survival compared with those without. Unlike earlier studies of patients treated with CHOP, TP53 mutation has predictive value for R-CHOPtreated patients with either the germinal center B-cell or activated B-cell DLBCL subtypes. Furthermore, we identified the loop-sheet-helix and L3 motifs in the DNAbinding domain to be the most critical structures for maintaining p53 function. In contrast, TP53 deletion and loss of heterozygosity did not confer worse survival. If gene mutation data are not available, immunohistochemical analysis showing > 50% cells expressing p53 protein is a useful surrogate and was able to stratify patients with significantly different prognoses. We conclude that assessment of TP53 mutation status is important for stratifying R-CHOP-treated patients into distinct prognostic subsets and has significant value in the design of future therapeutic strategies. (Blood. 2012;120(19):3986-3996)

and 25 Gundersen Lutheran Health System, La Crosse, WI Key Points• CD30 expression defines a novel and unique subgroup of DLBCL with favorable clinical outcome and distinct gene expression signature.CD30, originally identified as a cell-surface marker of Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin cells of classical Hodgkin lymphoma, is also expressed by several types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including a subset of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). However, the prognostic and biological importance of CD30 expression in DLBCL is unknown. Here we report that CD30 expression is a favorable prognostic factor in a cohort of 903 de novo DLBCL patients. CD30 was expressed in ∼14% of DLBCL patients. Patients with CD30 1 DLBCL had superior 5-year overall survival (CD30 1 , 79% vs CD30 -, 59%; P 5 .001) and progression-free survival (P 5 .003). The favorable outcome of CD30 expression was maintained in both the germinal center B-cell and activated B-cell subtypes. Gene expression profiling revealed the upregulation of genes encoding negative regulators of nuclear factor kB activation and lymphocyte survival, and downregulation of genes encoding B-cell receptor signaling and proliferation, as well as prominent cytokine and stromal signatures in CD30 1 DLBCL patients, suggesting a distinct molecular basis for its favorable outcome. Given the superior prognostic value, unique gene expression signature, and significant value of CD30 as a therapeutic target for brentuximab vedotin in ongoing successful clinical trials, it seems appropriate to consider CD30 1 DLBCL as a distinct subgroup of DLBCL. (Blood. 2013;121(14):2715-2724

BackgroundPilot studies have estimated cancer incidence in patients with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE). However, the results have been inconclusive. To ascertain the correlation between SLE and malignancy more comprehensively and precisely, we conducted a meta-analysis.MethodsPubMed, the Cochrane Library and Embase databases through June 2014, were searched to identify observational studies evaluating the association between SLE and malignancy. The outcomes from these studies were measured as relative risks (RRs). A random or fixed effects model was chosen to calculate the pooled RR according to heterogeneity test. Between-study heterogeneity was assessed by estimating I2 index. Publication bias was assessed by Egger’s test.ResultsA total of 16 papers, including 59,662 SLE patients, were suitable for the meta-analysis. Of these papers, 15 reported RRs for overall malignancy, 12 for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and lung cancer, 7 for bladder cancer, 6 for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and leukemia, 5 for skin melanoma, and liver and thyroid cancers, 4 for multiple myeloma (MM), and esophageal and vaginal/vulvar cancers and 3 for laryngeal and non-melanoma skin cancers. The pooled RRs were 1.28 (95% CI, 1.17–1.41) for overall cancer, 5.40 (95% CI, 3.75–7.77) for NHL, 3.26(95% CI, 2.17–4.88) for HL, 2.01(95% CI, 1.61–2.52) for leukemia, 1.45(95% CI, 1.04–2.03) for MM, 4.19(95% CI, 1.98–8.87) for laryngeal cancer, 1.59 (95% CI, 1.44–1.76) for lung cancer, 1.86(95% CI, 1.21–2.88) for esophageal cancer, 3.21(95% CI, 1.70–6.05) for liver cancer, 3.67(95% CI, 2.80–4.81) for vaginal/vulvar cancer, 2.11(95% CI, 1.12–3.99) for bladder cancer, 1.51(95% CI, 1.12–2.03) for non-melanoma skin cancer, 1.78(95% CI, 1.35–2.33) for thyroid cancer, and 0.65(95% CI, 0.50–0.85) for skin melanoma. Only the meta-analyses of overall malignancy, NHL, and liver and bladder cancers produced substantial heterogeneity (I2, 57.6% vs 74.3% vs 67.7% vs 82.3%). No apparent publication bias was detected except for NHL studies.ConclusionsOur data support an association between SLE and malignancy, not only demonstrating an increased risk for NHL, HL, leukemia, and some non-hematologic malignancies, including laryngeal, lung, liver, vaginal/vulvar, and thyroid malignancies, but also a reduced risk for skin melanoma. Although an increased risk of MM, and esophageal, bladder and non-melanoma skin cancers was identified from the accumulated data in these studies, this observation requires confirmation.

© F e r r a t a S t o r t i F o u n d a t i o nBCL2 translocations are more frequently found in the GCB subtype, whereas 18q21 locus amplification is more common in the ABC subtype of DLBCL. 3,8,10 The prognostic significance of BCL2 amplification or translocations in de novo DLBCL in the era of CHOP therapy alone, without rituximab, was controversial. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Some data on the prognostic significance of BCL2 aberrations in patients treated with R-CHOP have recently become available, with two studies reporting no influence of BCL2 gene rearrangements on the survival of DLBCL patients. 21,22 On the other hand, the concomitant presence of t(14;18) or variants and MYC rearrangements, referred to as double hit lymphomas, has consistently been associated with adverse outcome in DLBCL patients treated with R-CHOP. [23][24][25] Bcl-2 protein expression seems only partially related to BCL2 gene abnormalities as analyzed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), as Bcl-2 is expressed in a greater number of DLBCL cases than in those tumors carrying t(14;18)(q32;q21). [10][11][12] Indeed, in the absence of BCL2 translocations, amplification of 18q21 and/or activation of the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) pathway can cause Bcl-2 protein overexpression. 26 The prognostic significance of Bcl-2 expression is also controversial, and comparison between different studies is hampered by the choice of different cut-offs of positive cells, and by the variability of treatments. In patients treated with R-CHOP, Bcl-2 protein did not correlate with outcome, 5,27 since the addition of rituximab seemed to improve survival of Bcl-2-positive patients, [28][29][30] apparently eliminating the gap between Bcl-2-positive and Bcl-2-negative patients found in the pre-rituximab era. This result does, however, appear to be contradicted in a very recent study in which Bcl-2 expression in GCB-DLBCL was associated with poorer outcome. 22 The goal of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of BCL2 gene aberrations and Bcl-2 expression in a large number of patients with de novo DLBCL, uniformly treated with R-CHOP, for whom MYC and GEP characterization was available. Design and Methods PatientsWe studied 327 cases of previously untreated de novo DLBCL, diagnosed between January 2002 and October 2009, and collected as part of the International DLBCL Rituxan-CHOP Consortium Program Study. These cases were analyzed for Bcl-2 protein expression, and BCL2 and MYC gene abnormalities, and gene expression profiling (GEP) was performed. All cases were reviewed by a group of hematopathologists (SMM, MAP, MBM, AT, and KHY), and the diagnoses were confirmed based on World Health Organization classification criteria. Patients with transformation from low grade lymphoma, those with composite follicular lymphoma, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, primary cutaneous and primary central nervous system DLBCL were excluded from the analysis due to the unique biological features of these types of lymphoma. All pat...

Shp2 tyrosine phosphatase plays a critical role in hematopoiesis, and dominant active mutations have been detected in the human gene PTPN11, encoding Shp2, in child leukemia patients. We report here that although no such mutations were detected in 44 adult leukemia patients screened, Shp2 expression levels were significantly elevated in primary leukemia cells and leukemia cell lines, as compared with normal hematopoietic progenitor cells. The Shp2 protein amounts correlated well with the hyperproliferative capacity but were inversely associated with the differentiation degree of leukemia cells. Suppression of Shp2 expression induced apoptosis and inhibition of leukemic cell clonogenic growth. Notably, the majority of Shp2 was preferentially localized to the plasma membrane and was constitutively phosphorylated on tyrosine in leukemia cells, and also in normal hematopoietic cells following mitogenic stimulation. Based on these results, we propose that aberrantly increased expression of Shp2 may contribute, collaboratively with other factors, to leukemogenesis. IntroductionThe Src homology 2 (SH2) domain containing phosphotyrosine phosphatase 2 (Shp2), a ubiquitously expressed enzyme, plays a crucial role in normal hematopoietic cell development. [1][2][3] In vitro hematopoietic differentiation assay showed a severe suppression of erythroid/myeloid progenitor cell development from homozygous mutant (Shp2 ⌬46-110 ) embryonic stem (ES) cells. 1 Consistently, neither erythroid nor myeloid progenitor cells of Shp2 ⌬46-110 origin were detectable in the fetal liver or bone marrow of chimeric animals that were derived from aggregation of mutant ES cells and wild-type embryos, although a significant contribution of mutant cells was observed in a few other organs or tissue of the chimeras. 2 Subsequent experiments using the Rag-2 (recombination activating protein-2)-deficient blastocyst complementation assay demonstrated a function of Shp2 for lymphopoiesis in a cell-autonomous manner, and differentiation of lymphoid cell lineages in Shp2 Ϫ/Ϫ / Rag-2 Ϫ/Ϫ chimeric mice was blocked before pro-T-and pro-B-cell stages. 4 Together, these observations suggest a stringent requirement for a functional Shp2 in normal hematopoietic cell development in mammals.Upon stimulation of factor-dependent cell lines with interleukin-6 (IL-6), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), IL-3/granulocyte macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), or erythropoietin (Epo), Shp2 rapidly becomes tyrosine-phosphorylated. 5,6 Cells expressing a mutant gp130 that results in elimination of tyrosine phosphorylation fail to proliferate upon ligand stimulation. 7 Shp2 appears to play a positive role in activation of Akt and Erk signaling pathways, which promote cell proliferation/ survival and block cell apoptosis, critical events in tumorigenesis. [8][9][10] Functional analysis suggested that Shp2 may act in both catalytic-dependent and -independent manners in mediating IL-3-stimulated proliferation and survival of hematopoietic cells. 11 Several studies have...

CD5 is a pan-T-cell surface marker and is rarely expressed in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Large-scale studies of de novo CD5+ DLBCL are lacking in Western countries. In this study by the DLBCL Rituximab-CHOP Consortium, CD5 was expressed in 5.5% of 879 DLBCL patients from Western countries. CD5+ DLBCL was associated with higher frequencies of >1 ECOG performance status, bone marrow involvement, central nervous system relapse, activated B-cell–like subtype, Bcl-2 overexpression, and STAT3 and NF-κB activation, whereas rarely expressed single-stranded DNA-binding protein 2 (SSBP2), CD30 or had MYC mutations. With standard R-CHOP chemotherapy, CD5+ DLBCL patients had significantly worse overall survival (median, 25.3 months vs. not reached, P< .0001) and progression-free survival (median, 21.3 vs. 85.8 months, P< .0001) than CD5− DLBCL patients, which was independent of Bcl-2, STAT3, NF-κB and the International Prognostic Index. Interestingly, SSBP2 expression abolished the prognostic significance of CD5 expression, suggesting a tumor-suppressor role of SSBP2 for CD5 signaling. Gene-expression profiling demonstrated that B-cell receptor signaling dysfunction and microenvironment alterations are the important mechanisms underlying the clinical impact of CD5 expression. This study shows the distinctive clinical and biological features of CD5+ DLBCL patients in Western countries and underscores important pathways with therapeutic implications.