Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte/Monocyte Ratio At Diagnosis Is Independent of the Cell of Origin in Predicting Survival in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma,

Gene expression profiling has shown biologically distinct cell of origin categories for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL): germinal center B-cell like (GCB), and activated-B-cell like (ABC). GCB, DLBCL patients experienced better clinical outcomes compared with ABC, DLBCL patients. However, gene microarray technology is not broadly available in a non-research setting. Absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) at diagnosis is a prognostic factor for survival in DLBCL. Recently, gene-expression profiling and immunohistochemistry-based studies in non-Hosgkin's lymphoma demonstrate the important role of monocytes and their progeny, particularly lymphoma-associated macrophages, in promoting lymphomagenesis. thus, we studied if the peripheral blood absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count at diagnosis (ALC/AMC-DX), as a surrogate biomarker of the host response against the cell of origin in DLBCL, affects survival in DLBCL. Patients and Methods: We perfromed a retrospective analysis of the association between ALC/AMC-DX and survival in 131 consecutive DLBCL patients that were followed at Mayo Clinic from 2004 to 2010, with available tissue immunostaining for CD10, BCL6, MUM 1, and BCL 2 (Hans' algorithm) to identified GCB and ABC DLBCL patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and area under the curve (AUC) analyses were used for ALC/AMC-DX cut-off value determientaion and proportional-hazards models wee used to compare survival based on the ALC/AMC-DX. Results: The cohort included 91 (70%) GCb DLBCL patients and 40 (30%) ABC, DLBCL patients. All patients were treated with rituximab, cyclosphosphamide, adriamycin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP-21). The median follow-up period was 2.1 years (range 0.1–6.9 years). An ALC/AMC-DX >= 1.5 was the best cut-off value for survival with an empircal AUC of 0.83 (95% CI, 0.77 to 0.89), a sensitivity of 83% (95% CL, 72% to 92%) and specificity of 79% (95%CI, 72% to 85%). The cut-off value for ALC/AMC-DX >= 1.5 was validated by the k-fold cross validation method, showing a cross validation ROC with an AUC of 0.89 (95%CI, 0.80 to 0.95) for an ALC/AMC-DX >=1.5. Using Kaplan-Meier analysis, the overall survival (OS), defined as the time from diagnosis to last follow-up or death due to any cause; and progression-free survival (PFS), defined as the time from diagnosis to death of any cause, relapse, progression, or last follow-up, based on ALC/AMC-DX >= 1.5 were evaluated. patients with an ALC/AMC-DX >=1.5 experienced a superior OS and PFS compared with patients with an ALC/AMC-DX < 1.5: [OS: median was not reached vs 20.8 months, 5-years OS rates of 83% (95%CI, 70% to 95%) vs 36% (95%CI, 20% to 55%), p < 0.0001, respectively; and PFS: median was not reached vs 10.8 months, 5-years PFS rates of 70% (95%CI, 58% to 88%) vs 28% (95% CI, 17% to 46%), p < 0.0001, respectively]. Multivariate Cox stepwise regression analysis identified cell of origin, International Prognostic Index (IPI) and ALC/AMC-DX as the strongest predictors for OS and PFS, with ALC/AMC-DX out-performing cell of origin and IPI: OS [HR = 0.17, 95%CI, 0.07 to 0.36, p < 0.0001] and PFS [HR=0.21, 955CI, 0.11 to 0.39, p < 0.001]. conclusion: ALC/AMC-DX is independent of the cell of origin to predict survival and provides a single biomarker to predict clinical outcomes in DLBCL. Confirmatory studies are required.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.