title: The number of lymphoma-associated macrophages in tumor tissue is an independent prognostic factor in patients with follicular lymphoma.
abstract: The clinical course of patients with follicular lymphoma is variable from a slowly progressive disease to a progressive disease with a survival time of approximately 1 year. Many prognostic models have been suggested to identify high-risk patients. Recent gene profiling analysis showed that the clinical behavior of follicular lymphoma is determined by the properties of the nonmalignant tumor microenvironment. We investigated the role of lymphoma-associated macrophages (LAMs) in tumor tissue in patients with newly diagnosed follicular lymphoma. The LAM was determined immunohistochemically in lymph node tissue sections by anti-CD68 PG-M1 and analyzed through high-power field (HPF) magnification intrafollicularly (IF) and extrafollicularly. In our study, the patients who had an IF LAM count equal to or more than 10/HPF had significantly shorter overall survival (P=0.018) and 3 years of progression-free survival (P=0.034) compared with patients with <10 LAM/HPF. Multivariate analysis indicated that IF LAM/HPF ≥ 10 and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status >1 are independent prognostic factors for a poor outcome.
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Hematology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia. boleoli@sezampro.rs
authors.forename: Bosko
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Andjelic
authors.forename: Biljana
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mihaljevic
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Todorovic
authors.forename: Jelena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bila
authors.forename: Ljubomir
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jakovic
authors.forename: Maja Perunicic
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002452:Cell Count; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008224:Lymphoma, Follicular / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015996:Survival Rate