Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: Relevance of bcl-2 Expression at a National Hospital from Lima Peru 2000–2002.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLCL) exhibits heterogeneous clinical features and varies in response to treatment and prognosis. Establishment of parameters that can predict outcome could help to identify patients who may benefit from risk-adjusted therapies. Because apoptosis-related proteins may play an important role in predicting the prognosis of DLCL, the current study investigated the significance of bcl-2 expression in relation to clinical characteristics in this patients. We studied 125 patients (74/51 men/women; median age 64.17 years) consecutively diagnosed with de novo DLBCL in a single institution from Peru (HNGAI) during 3-year period (2000–2002).Morphology, and clinical characteristics were analyzed according to the primary site of the lymphoma and edge. Paraffin-embedded specimens from 88 were analyzed immunohistochemically for bcl-2 protein expression. Cases with a positive immunohistological stain in more than 20% of the tumor cells were considered positive expression. Results: Sites of the disease were: lymph node, 78 cases (62.4%); Waldeyer’s ring, 18 (14.4%); and extranodal sites, 45 (36%), including GI tract in 33 cases. 5-year overall survival (OS) was 19.7%. Log-rank analyses of survival showed significant differences between ≥60 years old and younger patients (P=0.003).bcl-2 expression was identified in 34 patients (38.6%), There was no significant difference in the OS (P=0.453) between the bcl-2+ (n=34) and bcl-2− (n=54) groups. In conclusion, bcl-2 expression appeared to be non predictive of a good OS in patients with DLCL, however, there was still a clear trend that the bcl-2+ patients died sooner than the patients with tumors that contained bcl-2− lymphoma cells. The current study show all patients as were staged or confined in a group with high or high intermediate IPI scores and could be candidates for alternative therapeutic approaches.