scholarly journals ASH highlights 2019: “aggressive B-cell lymphoma”

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens A. Schmitt

Summary Despite its significant cure rate, diffuse large B‑cell lymphoma (DLBCL) remains a tumor entity of unmet medical need. The 2019 meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in Orlando, Florida, presented numerous directions, whereby clinicians may expect practice-changing innovations soon or in the near future. In this ASH highlight feature on “aggressive B‑cell lymphoma”, a selection of prominent findings will be summarized. Targeted therapeutics try to meet the needs of patients subgroups that would benefit, and novel immune oncology agents now represent established treatment principles for relapsed/refractory (R/R) DLBCL. Moreover, intense research efforts have been undertaken to identify biomarkers of response. Imaging-based and molecular diagnostic tools are becoming increasingly instrumental in appraising individual risk prior to the first treatment encounter and in the early phase of induction therapy. Genomic analyses of circulating tumor DNA conducted in the peripheral blood has gained attention in terms of assigning patients to dedicated tumor subtypes, monitoring their molecular tumor burden in the course of the disease, and steering personalized treatment extensions in the near future.

2020 ◽  
pp. 030098582096790
Author(s):  
Nelly O. Elshafie ◽  
Naila C. do Nascimento ◽  
Nathanael I. Lichti ◽  
Andrea L. Kasinski ◽  
Michael O. Childress ◽  
...  

Lymphoma is among the most common cancer in dogs. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the predominant type, accounting for up to half of all cases. Definitive diagnosis of DLBCL relies on cytologic evaluation with immunophenotyping, or histopathology and immunohistochemistry when needed. A rapid and specific molecular test aiding in the diagnosis could be beneficial. Noncoding microRNAs (miRNAs) are regulators of gene expression involved in a variety of cellular processes, including cell differentiation, cell cycle progression, and apoptosis. Not surprisingly, miRNA expression is aberrant in diseases such as cancers. Their high stability and abundance in tissues make them promising biomarkers for diagnosing and monitoring diseases. This study aimed to identify miRNA signatures of DLBCL to develop ancillary molecular diagnostic tools. miRNA was isolated from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded lymph node tissue from 22 DLBCL and 14 nonneoplastic controls. Relative gene expression of 8 tumor-regulating miRNAs was achieved by RT-qPCR (reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction). The results showed downregulation of the let-7 family of miRNAs and miR-155, whereas miR-34a was upregulated in DLBCL compared to the controls. We demonstrated that the combination of expression levels of miR-34a and let-7f or of let-7b and let-7f achieved 100% differentiation between DLBCL and controls. Furthermore, let-7f alone discriminated DLBCL from nonneoplastic tissue in 97% of cases. Our results represent one step forward in search of a rapid and accurate ancillary diagnostic test for DLBCL in dogs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud A. Senousy ◽  
Aya M. El-Abd ◽  
Raafat R. Abdel-Malek ◽  
Sherine M. Rizk

AbstractThe reliable identification of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)-specific targets owns huge implications for its diagnosis and treatment. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are implicated in DLBCL pathogenesis; however, circulating DLBCL-related lncRNAs are barely investigated. We investigated plasma lncRNAs; HOTAIR, Linc-p21, GAS5 and XIST as biomarkers for DLBCL diagnosis and responsiveness to R-CHOP therapy. Eighty-four DLBCL patients and thirty-three healthy controls were included. Only plasma HOTAIR, XIST and GAS5 were differentially expressed in DLBCL patients compared to controls. Pretreatment plasma HOTAIR was higher, whereas GAS5 was lower in non-responders than responders to R-CHOP. Plasma GAS5 demonstrated superior diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.97) whereas a panel of HOTAIR + GAS5 superiorly discriminated responders from non-responders by ROC analysis. In multivariate analysis, HOTAIR was an independent predictor of non-response. Among patients, plasma HOTAIR, Linc-p21 and XIST were correlated. Plasma GAS5 negatively correlated with International Prognostic Index, whereas HOTAIR positively correlated with performance status, denoting their prognostic potential. We constructed the lncRNAs-related protein–protein interaction networks linked to drug response via bioinformatics analysis. In conclusion, we introduce plasma HOTAIR, GAS5 and XIST as potential non-invasive diagnostic tools for DLBCL, and pretreatment HOTAIR and GAS5 as candidates for evaluating therapy response, with HOTAIR as a predictor of R-CHOP failure. We provide novel surrogates for future predictive studies in personalized medicine.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document