Abstract
INTRODUCTION: We previously reported that serum concentrations of soluble Fas (sFas) predict the clinical outcome of patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) after treatment with CHOP but without rituximab (R). Here, we investigated whether the role of sFas as a prognostic factor remains valid in the R-CHOP era. PATIENTS: We treated 132 patients with DLBCL between October 1995 and September 2002 (group A: without rituximab), and 75 between December 2002 and March 2007 (group B: with rituximab). The patients received eight cycles of CHOP or THP (tetrahydropyranyl-adriamycin)-COP before September 2002, and R-CHOP or R-THP-COP after October 2002. The distribution of patients according to the International Prognostic Index did not significantly differ between the groups. RESULTS: The 5-year overall survival (OS) rates for patients with sFas levels of > or = 3.0 and <3.0 ng/ml in group A were 19.8 and 61.9% (P < 0.0001), whereas the 3-year OS rates in group B were 54.7 and 92.2% (P < 0.01), respectively. Multivariate analysis using the proportional hazards model revealed that sFas most significantly correlated with overall survival (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Serum sFas is thus a useful tool for selecting the appropriate therapeutic strategy for DLBCL.