title: High numbers of tumor-associated macrophages correlate with poor prognosis in patients with mature T- and natural killer cell lymphomas.
abstract: Various studies on lymphoma microenvironment have demonstrated the prognostic impact of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in patients with B-cell lymphoma. Little is known about the correlation between TAMs and treatment outcome in mature T- and natural killer (NK) cell lymphomas. We analyzed the prognostic relevance of CD68+ TAMs by immunohistochemical analysis in 64 Chinese patients with mature T- and NK-cell lymphomas. Higher number of infiltrated TAMs was significantly related to B symptoms and extranodal involvement (p < 0.05). The TAMs content did not differ significantly between pathological subtypes. Using the mean value of TAMs per high-power field (hpf) as the cutoff point (87/hpf), 36 cases (56.2 %) were categorized as low level of TAMs content and 28 cases (43.8%) as high level. Patients with high level of TAMs content had a worse 5-year overall survival compared to those with low level (28.1 vs. 44.3 %, p = 0.039). In multivariate analysis, TAMs content remained an independent biological variable for survival distinct from the International Prognostic Index (Cox multivariate model, p = 0.009). High TAMs content indicated an adverse overall outcome in mature T- and NK-cell lymphomas. Our results show that expression of stromal TAMs may become a useful marker for prognosis of mature T- and NK-cell lymphomas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, 600 Tian He Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ze-Xiao
authors.initials: ZX
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Qi-Chun
authors.initials: QC
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Qing-Qing
authors.initials: QQ
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Xiao-Xiao
authors.initials: XX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiang-Yuan
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Hui-Qiang
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D054391:Lymphoma, Extranodal NK-T-Cell / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D055815:Young Adult