Clinical significance of Bcl-6 expression in young DLBCL patients with Myc+ or Bcl-2+Myc+

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the expression of Bcl-6 in newly diagnosed and young patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and to further explore its clinical significance in young DLBCL patients with Myc positive expression (Myc+) or Bcl-2 and Myc positive expressions (Bcl-2+Myc+). Methods: Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining was used to detect the expressions of Bcl-6, Myc and Bcl-2 in 116 newly diagnosed and young patients with DLBCL, and the complete clinical and pathological data were collected. The relationship between the expression levels of Bcl-6 protein and the prognosis of young DLBCL patients with Myc+ and Bcl-2+Myc+ was retrospectively analyzed. Results: There was no significantly correlation between the expression of Bcl-6 alone and the prognosis of young DLBCL patients (P > 0.05). However, for the DLBCL patients with Myc+, the prognosis in Bcl-6 negative (Bcl-6－) group was worse than that in Bcl-6 positive (Bcl-6+) group (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the multivariate COX regression analysis showed that Bcl-6－Myc+ expression was a significant independent factor of adverse prognosis except for the international prognostic index (IPI) (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the prognosis of DLBLC patients with Bcl-6－Bcl-2+Myc+ was significantly worse than that of the patients with Bcl-6+Bcl-2+Myc+ (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Bcl-6 negative expression can increase the risk of poor prognosis in young DLBCL patients with Myc+ or Bcl-2+Myc+. DOI:10.3781/j.issn.1000-7431.2018.33.169