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Lymphoma

Structural aberrations affecting the MYC locus indicate a poor prognosis independent of clinical risk factors in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas treated within randomized trials of the German High-Grade Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Study Group (DSHNHL)

Leukemia volume 22, pages 2226–2229 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent retrospective studies of heterogeneously treated patients have suggested that chromosomal aberrations of the MYC gene locus indicate an unfavorable prognosis in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Here, we investigated the prognostic impact of MYC aberrations analyzed by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization in 177 patients with de novo DLBCL treated within the two prospective, randomized trials non-Hodgkin's lymphoma NHL-B1 and NHL-B2. MYC aberrations were detected in 14 DLBCL (7.9%). In a univariate analysis compared with MYC-negative DLBCL, MYC-positive cases showed a significantly shorter overall survival (OS) (P=0.047) and relevantly, though not significantly, shorter event-free survival (EFS) (P=0.062). In a Cox model adjusted for the international prognostic index, the presence of a MYC gene rearrangement was the strongest statistically independent predictor of OS (relative risk 3.4, P=0.004) and EFS (relative risk 2.5, P=0.015), and this also held true when the cell-of-origin signature detected by immunohistochemistry was included in the model.

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Acknowledgements

This study was carried out within the framework of the research network ‘Molecular Mechanisms in malignant Lymphoma’ supported by the Deutsche Krebshilfe (70-3173-Tr3). The NHL-B1 and NHL-B2 trials were supported by a grant from Deutsche Krebshilfe and unrestricted grants from Amgen and Bristol-Myers. We thank Olivera Batic, Claudia Becher, for technical assistance and Kay Dege for editing the manuscript.

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  1. F Kosari

    Present address: 8Present address: Department of Pathology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Hematopathology Section and Lymph Node Registry, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel/Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    W Klapper & F Kosari

  2. Department of Clinical Pathology, Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus, Stuttgart, Germany

    H Stoecklein & G Ott

  3. Institute of Pathology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    H Stoecklein & A Rosenwald

  4. Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    S Zeynalova & M Loeffler

  5. Department of Hematology and Oncology, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    L Trümper

  6. Department of Internal Medicine I, University Clinic Saarland, Homburg/Saar, Homburg/Saar, Germany

    M Pfreundschuh

  7. Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel/Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Reiner Siebert

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  1. W Klapper
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Correspondence to W Klapper.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Leukemia website (http://www.nature.com/leu)

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Klapper, W., Stoecklein, H., Zeynalova, S. et al. Structural aberrations affecting the MYC locus indicate a poor prognosis independent of clinical risk factors in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas treated within randomized trials of the German High-Grade Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Study Group (DSHNHL). Leukemia 22, 2226–2229 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2008.230

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