IgA and IgG Hypogammaglobulinemia Does Not Predict for Recurrent Infection Risk and Persists Despite Therapeutic Response in Patients with Waldentrom's Macroglobulinemia.

Abstract 1947

Poster Board I-970

Recurrent infections are commonly observed among patients with WM, and may be related to the presence of IgA and IgG hypogammaglobulinemia. The etiology for this finding remains unclear, and has been speculated to be on the basis of tumor-induced suppression. We therefore evaluated the incidence of IgA and IgG hypogammaglobulinemia in 207 untreated WM patients and addressed the associated clinicopathological findings, and impact of therapy. The median age of these patients was 60, median IgM was 2,910, and median bone marrow (BM) infiltration was 40%. Of these patients, 131 (63.3%) and 120 (58.0%) patients demonstrated decreased serum IgA and IgG levels respectively, while 102 (49.3%) of these patients were abnormally low for both. BM infiltration, serum IgM levels, complete blood counts, absolute lymphocyte counts, b2-microglobulin, or the WM International Prognostic Scoring System score had no impact on the odds ratio of having IgA or IgG, or both IgA or IgG hypogammaglobulinemia by logistic regression analysis. The presence of adenopathy and/or splenomegaly was surprisingly associated with a lower incidence of hypogammaglobulinemia (p≤0.03). The presence of IgA, IgG or both IgA and IgG hypogammaglobulinemia did not predict for the occurrence of recurring infections, which were nearly all respiratory in nature and consisted of sinus (n=53; 25.85%), bronchial (n=16; 7.80%), unspecified upper respiratory tract (n=14; 6.83%), and pneumonic (n=7; 3.41%) infections. Lower IgA and IgG levels were however associated with disease progression in watch and wait patients. To understand the impact of WM directed therapeutic intervention on uninvolved immunoglobulin levels, we analyzed changes in IgA and IgG levels in a cohort of 93 patients who underwent treatment for WM. With a median follow-up of 12 months, no significant recovery in the median IgA and IgG levels was observed with any therapy during the course of follow-up, including in those patients who had follow-up in excess of 1 (n=46), 2 (n=25), and 3 (n=8) or more years post-therapy, and in those achieving a major remission including complete response. Lastly, we sequenced 8 genes (AICDA; BTK; CD40; CD154; NEMO, TACI, SH2D1A, UNG) implicated in immunoglobulin deficiency in 19 WM patients with IgA and/or IgG hypogammaglobulinemia. We observed an intronic variation at position c.1056-6T>C in 2 patients, and a hemizygous missense mutation at c.337G>A in another patient for NEMO, as well as a heterozygous missense mutation at c.425A>T in the highly conserved catalytic site of UNG for one patient. The results of these studies demonstrate that IgA and IgG hypogammaglobulinemia is common, and does not predict for recurrent infection risk in WM. Moreover, IgA and IgG hypogammaglobulinemia persists despite therapeutic intervention and response. These studies highlight the importance for further investigations into the IgA and IgG hypogammaglobulinemia of WM, as well as the signaling pathways involved in B-cell differentiation and immunoglobulin heavy chain class switching in the pathogenesis of WM.