Serum beta-2 microglobulin as a prognostic biomarker in patients with mantle cell lymphoma

Although serum beta-2 microglobulin (B2M) has been suggested as a prognostic factor for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), additional data are necessary to confirm its role. Between November 2005 and July 2014, a total of 52 patients with MCL were identified from the database of Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. Pretreatment serum B2M information was available in 50 patients (96%). Overall survival (OS) was compared according to the serum B2M level with a cut-off value of 2.5 mg/L. The median MCL international prognostic index (MIPI) score was 5.84 (range 4.72-7.80), and the median biologic MIPI (MIPI-b) score was 6.27 (4.93-8.47). Pretreatment serum B2M was elevated in 30 patients (60%) and was significantly related to advanced stage (p = 0.02) and high MIPI (p = 0.03) and MIPI-b (p = 0.03) scores. With median follow-up duration of 29.8 months (range 0.8-87.0 months), the median OS was 56.2 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 36.6-75.9 months] in all patients, and serum B2M was significantly associated with OS (p = 0.001). In multivariate analyses adjusted for MIPI or MIPI-b scores and rituximab, elevated serum B2M was significantly associated with poor OS (when adjusting MIPI, hazard ratio = 26.4, 95% CI 2.9-241.3, p = 0.004; when adjusting MIPI-b, hazard ratio = 20.1, 95% CI 2.4-170.1, p = 0.006). Thus, pretreatment serum B2M may be an independent and significant prognostic factor in patients with MCL.