Clinical characteristics and prognostic analysis of Chinese patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of lymphoma in adults. As it is a highly heterogenous disease, many studies have focused on finding useful prognostic factors to help guide therapy. In this report, we examine several biological markers in 83 patients with DLBCL enrolled in our hospital, including cell origin, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, and international prognostic index (IPI), in order to find the best combination of prognostic factors. We also examined whether DLBCL has a significant geographic difference, since several studies have suggested that the prevalence and potential etiological factors of lymphomas in China may be different from those in other countries. Our results demonstrate that: (1) patients in China have higher extranodal tissue involvement and different extranodal organ distribution than patients reported from other countries; (2) Chinese patients have higher rates of germinal center (GC) cell origin; and (3) among nine prognostic variables, lower IPI scores, GC cell origin determined by immunohistochemical staining, and no more than 1.5 times of normal levels of LDH are statistically significant good prognostic factors in Chinese patients with DLBCL, whereas age at the time of diagnosis, clinical stage, beta(2)-microglobulin levels, extranodal tissue involvement, and expression levels of Bcl-6 protein were not useful in determining prognosis.