Bcl2 Expression Predicts Better Overall Survival in 90 Patients with Mantle Cell Lymphoma.

The expression of bcl2 was typically observed in follicular lymphoma with a t(14;18) but also in CLL and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). Up to now no study investigated the expression of bcl2 in correlation with the clinical outcome in a large collective of patients with MCL. We investigated immunohistochemically the expression of the apoptotic marker bcl2 in relation to the clinical course. 90 biopsy specimens were investigated immunohistochemically with antibodies against CD20, CD5, CD3, CD23, cyclin D1 and bcl2. The expression was analyzed in three groups: negative, 5–50% positive cells (weak positive) and more than 50% positive cells (strong positive). The expression profils were compared with the overall survival data analysed according to Kaplan and Meier. In none of thae cases a negative staining was found. 16 cases (18%) had a weak and 74 cases (82%) a strong bcl2 expression. Patients with mantle cell lymphoma that had a weak positive expression (n=16) had a median overall survival time of 21 months compared to 32 months for patients with a strong expression (n=74) (p=0.0402). In contrast to DLBL high levels of bcl2 expression had a better prognosis than pathients with low levels.