Evaluation of BCL-6, CD10, CD138 and MUM-1 Expression in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma patients: CD138 is a Marker of Poor Prognosis

The diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) encompasses two major groups of tumors with uneven survivaloutcomes - germinal center B-cell (GCB) and non-germinal center B-cell (non-GCB). In the present study, weinvestigated the expression of GCB markers (BCL-6 and CD10) and non-GCB markers (CD138 and MUM-1) in an effort to evaluate their prognostic value. Paraffin-embedded tumor biopsies of 46 Jordanian DLBCLpatients were analyzed, retrospectively, by immunohistochemistry to investigate the expression of BCL-6, CD10,CD138 and MUM-1. In addition, survival curves were calculated with reference to marker expression, age, sexand nodal involvement. Positive expression of BCL-6, CD10, CD138 and MUM-1 was shown in 78%, 61%,39% and 91% of the cases, respectively, that of BCL-6 being associated with better overall survival (p = 0.02),whereas positive CD138 was linked with poor overall survival (p = 0.01). The expression of CD10 and MUM-1 had no impact on the overall survival. Among the clinical characteristics studied, diagnosis at an early age,nodal involvement and maleness were associated with a higher overall survival for DLBCL patients. Our resultsunderline the importance of BCL-6 as a marker of better prognosis and CD138 as a marker of poor prognosisfor DLBCL patients.