Immunophenotypic characteristics of diffuse large b-cell lymphoma and expression of C-MYC protein: single Ecuadorian center experience

Abstract


 
 
 Background: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) makes up from 25% to 40% of all non- Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) and is the most common histological subtype worldwide. In Ecuador, DLBCL makes up 49% of all NHL cases, but there have been no studies on the immunophenotypic classification of DLBCL in germinal center (GC) and non–germinal center (NGC) subtypes. This study was conducted to ascertain the immunophenotypic profile of DLBCL in an Ecuadorian hospital.
 Methods: A total of 38 DLBCL cases from 2006 to 2015 were compiled from the Pathology Service at Metropolitan Hospital (HM) in Quito, Ecuador. Eleven of these cases failed to meet the inclusion criteria; thus, the final sample consisted of 27 cases. Manual tissue microarrays were constructed, and three immunohistochemical markers (CD10, BCL6, and MUM1) were applied according to the Hans algorithm; in addition, the expression of the c-myc protein expression was also investigated.
 Results: The results showed that 77.8% of cases were of the GC subtype, 11.1% were NGC, and 11.1% were unclassifiable according to the Hans algorithm.
 Conclusions: The most frequent DLBCL subtype was GC, with 21 cases; and 40.7% of these cases overexpressed c-myc.