Haematologica (Jul 2011)

High microvessel density determines a poor outcome in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with rituximab plus chemotherapy

  • Teresa M. Cardesa-Salzmann,
  • Luis Colomo,
  • Gonzalo Gutierrez,
  • Wing C. Chan,
  • Dennis Weisenburger,
  • Fina Climent,
  • Eva González-Barca,
  • Santiago Mercadal,
  • Leonor Arenillas,
  • Sergio Serrano,
  • Ray Tubbs,
  • Jan Delabie,
  • Randy D. Gascoyne,
  • Joseph M Connors,
  • Jose L. Mate,
  • Lisa Rimsza,
  • Rita Braziel,
  • Andreas Rosenwald,
  • Georg Lenz,
  • George Wright,
  • Elaine S. Jaffe,
  • Louis Staudt,
  • Pedro Jares,
  • Armando López-Guillermo,
  • Elias Campo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3324/haematol.2010.037408
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 96, no. 7

Abstract

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Background Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is a clinically and molecularly heterogeneous disease. Gene expression profiling studies have shown that the tumor microenvironment affects survival and that the angiogenesis-related signature is prognostically unfavorable. The contribution of histopathological microvessel density to survival in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas treated with immunochemotherapy remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to assess the prognostic impact of histopathological microvessel density in two independent series of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with immunochemotherapy.Design and Methods One hundred and forty-seven patients from the Leukemia Lymphoma Molecular Profiling Project (training series) and 118 patients from the Catalan Lymphoma-Study group-GELCAB (validation cohort) were included in the study. Microvessels were immunostained with CD31 and quantified with a computerized image analysis system. The stromal scores previously defined in 110 Leukemia Lymphoma Molecular Profiling Project cases were used to analyze correlations with microvessel density data.Results Microvessel density significantly correlated with the stromal score (r=0.3209; P