Abstract

<div>Abstract<p><b>Purpose:</b> Unmutated (UM) immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region (IgHV) status or IgHV3-21 gene usage is associated with poor prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients. Interestingly, IgHV3-21 is often co-expressed with light chain IgLV3-21, which is potentially able to trigger cell-autonomous BCR-mediated signaling. However, this light chain has never been characterized independently of the heavy chain IgHV3-21.</p><p><b>Experimental Design:</b> We performed total RNA sequencing in 32 patients and investigated IgLV3-21 prognostic impact in terms of treatment-free survival (TFS) and overall survival (OS) in 3 other independent cohorts for a total of 813 patients. IgLV3-21 presence was tested by real-time PCR and confirmed by Sanger sequencing.</p><p><b>Results:</b> Using total RNA sequencing to characterize 32 patients with high-risk CLL, we found a high frequency (28%) of IgLV3-21 rearrangements. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that these patients express higher levels of genes responsible for ribosome biogenesis and translation initiation (<i>P</i> < 0.0001) as well as MYC target genes (<i>P</i> = 0.0003). Patients with IgLV3-21 rearrangements displayed a significantly shorter TFS and OS (<i>P</i> < 0.05), particularly those with IgHV mutation. In each of the three independent validation cohorts, we showed that IgLV3-21 rearrangements—similar to UM IgHV status—conferred poor prognosis compared with mutated IgHV (<i>P</i> < 0.0001). Importantly, we confirmed by multivariate analysis that this was independent of IgHV mutational status or subset #2 stereotyped receptor (<i>P</i> < 0.0001).</p><p><b>Conclusions:</b> We have demonstrated for the first time that a light chain can affect CLL prognosis and that IgLV3-21 light chain usage defines a new subgroup of CLL patients with poor prognosis. <i>Clin Cancer Res; 24(20); 5048–57. ©2018 AACR</i>.</p></div>

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