Background: MCL is a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) with an aggressive clinical course. MCL is associated with poor prognosis and incurable disease in the majority of patients. However, a minority of patients will not require any treatment for many years. TP53 mutations continue to confer a dismal prognosis in MCL with a median survival of 1.3 years. However, targeted therapy and, more recently, promising CAR-T treatment have revolutionised the outcome.

Methods: Patients were identified through our pathology database, and informed consent was obtained. The patient's demographic characteristics, clinical features, laboratory findings, MIPI score, initial / subsequent treatment and survival were analysed. p53 expression percentage and its concordance with the mutational status were evaluated in a subset of patients.

Results: One hundred and one patients were included in this study, with a male predominance (80%), median age 67 years (Range 37-89 years) and majority with advanced disease. Fifty-one patients (50%) presented with extra-nodal disease. Most of the patients presented with Classical MCL ( 75%) histological sub-type, 20 patients (20%) with blastoid variant and 6 patients (6%) with indolent disease. Seventy-four patients (73%) had a high MIPI risk score, while intermediate and low scores were noted in 17 patients (17%) and 10 patients (10%), respectively. Chemo-immunotherapy (CIT) was the main initial treatment modality in our cohort (79 patients / 78%). Watch and wait approach was applied in 6 patients with the indolent disease, 4 patients (4%) were not fit for any form of therapy. Forty-four patients (44%) had Rituximab maintenance and autologous stem cell transplant (Auto-SCT ) consolidation was used in 12 patients (12%). Five patients (5%) had allogeneic SCT (Allo-SCT) post-remission.

Initially, 29 patient samples were used to validate immunohistochemistry (IHC) p53 expression percentage and its correlation with TP53 mutational data from genomic sequencing (SS and NGS). p53 expression of > 30% had 100% concordance with TP53 mutational status.

A total of 128 patient samples, including 27 samples with relapsed disease, were screened for TP53 alterations using IHC p53 expression as a surrogate marker. Twenty samples (16%) showed p53 overexpression (15/12% diagnostic & 5/19% relapsed samples).

At the final data compilation (31/01/2021), 44 patients were still alive, and 57 patients had died. The OS and PFS for the whole cohort were 69 and 47 months, respectively. (Figure 1)

The prognostic impact of age (<65 years), MIPI score & disease sub-type were confirmed in this cohort with a P-value of P.00046, P.0.036 and P.0.0192, respectively. In the treated cohort, p53 disruption revealed a dismal prognosis and poor treatment outcome, with a median OS and PFS in the p53 wild-type cohort of 95 months and 50 months. In contrast, in patients harbouring p53 disruption, the median OS & PFS were 38months (P.0323) and 25 months (P.0383 ), respectively. (Figure 2)

Conclusion

This study reflects real-life MCL experience and the potential use of p53 expression using IHC in routine practice in assessing MCL disease prognosis. It also confirms the dismal outcome of MCL patients with TP53 mutations. Participation in clinical trials based on genetic risk stratification is warranted.

Figure 1
Figure 1.
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Disclosures

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

© 2021 by The American Society of Hematology
2021
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