Potential prognostic implications of whole-body bone marrow MRI in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients with a negative blind bone marrow biopsy

Abstract

To assess the prognostic implications of whole-body bone marrow MRI findings in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients with a negative blind bone marrow biopsy (BMB). Thirty-eight patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL and negative blind BMB prospectively underwent whole-body MRI (T1-weighted, T2-weighted short inversion time inversion recovery, and diffusion-weighted sequences), which were scored as positive or negative for lymphomatous bone marrow involvement. Proportions of patients who experienced disease relapse/progression or died during follow-up were calculated and compared between whole-body MRI-positive and whole-body MRI-negative patients. The median follow-up time of surviving patients was 973 days (range, 391-1655 days). Disease relapse/progression occurred in 33% (5/15) of patients with a positive whole-body MRI and in 13% (3/23) of patients with a negative whole-body MRI. In addition, 20% (3/15) of patients with a positive whole-body MRI died during follow-up, compared with 9% (2/23) of patients with a negative whole-body MRI. The results of this study show that disease relapse or progression and death may occur more frequently in whole-body MRI-positive patients than in whole-body MRI-negative patients, which suggests that whole-body bone marrow MRI findings in DLBCL patients with a negative BMB may have prognostic implications.