CD30 Expression and Its Correlation with Clinicopathologic Features in De Novo Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a heterogeneous disease disease with 40% of patients presenting as refractory/relapsing disease following R-CHOP treatment. Recently, CD30 was reported as a useful predictor with favorable clinical outcome. However, CD30 expression patterns and the clinicopathologic features of CD30 positive DLBCL are not well described thus far, Here, we studied149 patients with de novo DLBCL to investigate clinicopathologic features of CD30-positive DLBCL by immunohistochemistry. useing a >0% cut-off,CD30 was expressed in approximately 13% (19)patients with DLBCL, showing a lower frequency of MYC/BCL2 co-expression. The clinic features were very similar between the CD30+ and CD30- groups,such as age, sex, B symptoms, staging, ECOG PS, LDH level, extranodal site involvement, IPI, GCB or non GCB type, bone marrow involvement. By univariate analysis Patients with CD30-positive DLBCLs showed better progression-free survival and overall survival compared with patients with CD30-negative DLBCLs, although the superior outcome of CD30 positivity had minimal effects on DLBCL with MYC/BCL2 co-expression. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was identified in 8(5.3%) cases, all of which were almost exclusively positive for CD30 expression (8/8) (P < 0·001). We conclude CD30 is expressed in a substantial proportion of DLBCL and CD30 immunohistochemistry may be a useful prognostic marker in R-CHOP treated GCB-DLBCL. The significant association of CD30 with EBV-positive DLBCL suggests a distinct pathobiology for these cases. We concluded that CD30 may be useful as a prognostic marker in rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) treated DLBCLs, indicating favorable outcomes