12th Congress of the European Hematology ... - Haematologica

12 th Congress of the European Hematology Association
low/intermediate risk, 12 (26%); high/intermediate risk 9 (19%); and
high risk, 5 (11%). All patients were treated with curative intent and,
except for one case, an initial treatment started with a CHOP chemotherapy
regimen with a median of 6 administrated cycles. Overall response
rate was 69% with a complete response (CR) in 31 patients (67%). For
subsequent analyses patients were divided into two subgroups: 1. with
cured disease (31 cases, 54%; median follow-up 4,3 years), and 2. with
fatal course of disease (21 cases, 46%; median follow-up 9 months).
Only patients, who died of disease progression were included. Imunohistochemistry
was performed on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded
tissue sections with monoclonal antibodies against: Akt-1, Akt-2, phospho-Akt-Ser-473
and phospho-Akt-Thr-307, Bcl-2, integrin-βI (CD29),
protein kinase C β I and II (PKC-βI, PKC-βII), gama (PKC-γ), delta (PKCδ),
and Survivin. The expression was considered positive if 5% or more
of the tumor cells were stained with the antibody, except for the cases
of CD29, Survivin and Bcl-2, where the limits were: 10%, 20% and
40%, respectively. In addition, the expression of PKC isoforms was analyzed
by Real-Time-PCR and obtained CT-values were compared. p-value
was based on Gehan-Wilcoxon test or chi-square test and p-values
0,05 were considered significant. The Kaplan-Meier method was used
to estimate overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Results.
Tumor cells’expression of phospho-Akt-2-Ser-473, Bcl-2, CD29 and Survivin
correlated with an inferior OS and PFS and predicted an adverse
outcome in patients with DLBCL. Thus, patients with positive expression
of phospho-Akt-2-Ser-473 had a median of OS and PFS lower compared
to those with negative expression (OS: 45 vs 11 months, p