How immunologic and genetic biomarkers impact Hodgkin lymphoma classification, diagnosis, and management: a huge potential that yet needs to be exploited

The Lymphoma-Associated Macrophage to Hodgkin-Reed-Sternberg Cell Ratio Is a Poor Prognostic Factor in Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients

BACKGROUND

Despite the relatively high rate of curability, approximately 20% to 30% of patients with classic Hodgkin lymphoma relapse. Hodgkin-Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells:lymphoma-associated macrophages (LAMs) cross talk promotes tumor growth and resistance to therapy. The aim of the study was to assess the prognostic role of the LAM to HRS ratio (LHR) in lymph node biopsies using a novel automated system for scanning large sample areas.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

High-quality tissue samples obtained from 71 patients and stained with anti-CD30 and anti-CD68 were analyzed using the TissueFAXS (TissueGnostics).

RESULTS

A high LHR was associated with inferior 5-year progression-free survival (PFS; 50.0% vs. 79.3%; P = .032) and overall survival (OS; 65.4% vs. 92.3%; P = .012). Multivariate Cox regression identified the high LHR as an unfavorable prognostic factor for PFS (hazard ratio [HR], 3.07; P = .029) and OS (HR, 4.56; P = .025).

CONCLUSION

A high LHR at diagnosis is associated with a higher risk of lymphoma progression or death. Automated image analysis is a new tool that can overcome technical limitations of by microarray samples in lymphomas with high intratumor heterogeneity.