Beta 2 microglobulin level as an indicator of prognosis in diffuse large cell lymphoma

We report results of our investigation of prognostic factors for patients with diffuse large cell lymphoma (DLCL) who were entered on the same treatment protocol and who had known pretreatment serum beta 2 microglobulin levels. Serum beta 2 microglobulin, bone marrow involvement, performance status and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) levels were associated with a poor prognosis in univariate analysis. However, only beta 2 microglobulin remained of prognostic significance in a multivariate analysis with statistical differences at different cut off levels. We believe that beta 2 microglobulin levels accurately separate patients into low-, intermediate- and high-risk patients. It is concluded that serum beta 2 microglobulin is the most significant prognostic factor currently available for DLCL and should be incorporated in the initial staging in order to provide a basis for designing the therapeutic approach in these cases.