Prognostic significance of CXCR4 and mTOR expression in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic role of mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR) and C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) in diffuse large-B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients.
Patients and methods: This retrospective study was collected data from 64 de novo DLBCL patients, who received standardized R-CHOP therapy at two oncology centers. CXCR4 and mTOR expressions were assessed by immunohistochemistry.
Results: Out of the 64 DLBCL patients, 40 patients were positive for CXCR4 (62.5%) and 35 patients for mTOR (54.7%) expressions. CXCR4 expression was positively correlated with mTOR expression (r = 0.7; p <.001). While mTOR expression was significantly associated with high lactate dehydrogenase level (p =.03) and number of extranodal sites one or more (p =.02), CXCR4 expression was significantly associated with high IPI score (p <.001) and ECOG PS (p =.005). Furthermore, the expression levels of mTOR and CXCR4 were significantly associated with older ages and poor response to treatment (p =.04, <.001 and.04,.03, respectively). After a median Follow up of 22 months, mean ± SD overall survival (OS) was 65.391 ± 4.705. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients positive for mTOR and CXCR4 expression had shorter DFS (p =.01 &.02) and OS (p =.02 &.04). Multivariate analysis showed that CXCR4 and mTOR positivity is an independent prognostic factor for significantly poorer DFS (p =.03, and.02 respectively) but not for OS (p =.09 and.08 respectively) in the DLBCL pateints.
Conclusion: Our results indicate that the expression of CXCR4 and mTOR may be poor prognostic biomarkers in DLBCL.

Keywords

DLBCL / Mammalian target of rapamycin / CXCR4 / Immunohistochemistry / Prognosis