Conclusions and clinical relevance
Although further investigation using a large number of DLBCL specimens needs to be conducted, these results suggest that RPPA could be applicable as a supportive tool for determining lymphoma prognosis.
Purpose
Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common non-Hodgkin lymphoma, is a heterogeneous lymphoma with different clinical manifestations and molecular alterations, and several markers are currently being measured routinely for its diagnosis, subtyping, or prognostication by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Here, the utility of a reverse-phase-protein-array (RPPA) as a novel supportive tool to measure multiple biomarkers for DLBCL diagnosis is validated. Experimental design: The expression of seven markers (CD5, CD10, BCL2, BCL6, MUM1, Ki-67, and C-MYC) is analyzed by RPPA and IHC using 37 DLBCL tissues, and the correlation between the two
Results
The CD20-adjusted data for CD5, MUM1, BCL2, Ki-67, and C-MYC has better correlation with IHC results than PAX-5-adjusted data. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis reveals that CD5, MUM1, BCL2, and C-MYC exhibit a better sensitivity and specificity >0.750. Furthermore, the CD20-adjusted C-MYC value strongly correlates with that of IHC, and has a particularly high specificity (0.882). Conclusions and clinical relevance: Although further investigation using a large number of DLBCL specimens needs to be conducted, these results suggest that RPPA could be applicable as a supportive tool for determining lymphoma prognosis.