Adverse Prognostic Impact of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Gene Polymorphism in Patients with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Abstract 2674

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in angiogenesis and progression of many types of cancer, and VEGF expression has been known to be associated with polymorphism of gene. However, the impact of polymorphisms of the VEGF gene on non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) prognosis has not been fully elucidated. Here we investigated the association between VEGF polymorphisms and prognosis of NHL. The study involved 96 NHL patients treated at National Cancer Center, Korea. The median patient age was 57 years, and 60 patients (62.5%) were men. A total of 5 polymorphisms with heterozygous allele were analyzed. Clinical characteristics (e.g., cell lineage) and international prognostic index (IPI), including age, performance, LDH, stage and extra-nodal involvement, were evaluated and related to VEGF polymorphism. Hazard ratios (HRs) were determined in terms of risk for overall survival using Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (n=73) was most common histologic type, and others were as follows: T-cell lymphoma (n=14), mantle cell lymphoma (n=6), and Burkitt lymphoma (n=3). IPI and stage were predictors for prognosis (p <0.01), and both index did not have correlation with VEGF polymorphisms. The genotype frequency of rs1570360 was GG (70%), GA (26%), and AA (4%), and it has significantly association with poor prognosis with HRs of 2.52 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.36 to 4.67] in NHL patients and 2.41 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.15 to 5.05] in DLBCL treated by rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP), respectively. In IPI subgroup analysis, rs1570360 had association in higher IPI group (IPI ≥ 3) (p=0.02). These findings suggest that VEGF polymorphisms may be significant prognostic indicators for patients with NHL and DLBCL.