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Distribution Patterns of Dendritic Cells and T Cells in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphomas Correlate with Prognoses

Authors' Affiliations: ¹ Department of Pathology and ² Institute of Clinical Medicine, Medical College, National Cheng Kung University; ³ Division of Hemato-Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chi-Mei Medical Center; ⁴ Division of Clinical Research, National Health Research Institute, Tainan, Taiwan; and ⁵ Department of Hematopathology, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas

Requests for reprints: Kung-Chao Chang, Department of Pathology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, 138 Sheng-Li Road, Tainan 704, Taiwan. Phone: 886-6-235-3535, ext. 2636; Fax: 886-6-276-6195; E-mail: changkc{at}mail.ncku.edu.tw.

Purpose: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, accounts for 30% to 40% of all lymphoma cases. However, long-term survival by current chemotherapy was achieved in only 40% of patients, warranting the development of novel therapeutic strategies including T-cell immunotherapy. However, the level of baseline immune activation in DLBCL is unclear.

Experimental Design: The density and distribution of dendritic cells and T cells in 48 cases of primary DLBCL was evaluated by immunohistochemistry.

Results: Increased numbers of intratumoral CD1a⁺ dendritic cells and increased S100⁺ cells and CD45RO⁺ T cells around the edges of the tumors were seen in 10 of 48 (21%), 9 of 48 (19%), and 10 of 48 (21%) cases and these were correlated with a favorable prognosis (P = 0.015; P = 0.070, and P = 0.017, respectively), along with increased granzyme B⁺ T cells in tumor beds (P = 0.013). Increased peritumoral T cells were correlated with tumor expression of HLA-DR (r = 0.446; P = 0.002). Extranodal lymphomas showed fewer tumor-associated CD45RO⁺ T cells (r = –0.407; P = 0.001) and less conspicuous dendritic cell infiltrates.

Conclusions: In DLBCL, the presence of baseline antitumor immune response is associated with favorable clinical outcome, and thus adjuvant T-cell immunotherapy may further boost treatment responses.

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