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Cell proliferation as a long‐term prognostic factor in diffuse large‐cell lymphomas
Author(s) -
Silvestrini Rosella,
Costa Aurora,
Boracchi Patrizia,
Giardini Roberto,
Rilke Franco
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910540212
Subject(s) - term (time) , cell , medicine , pathology , cancer research , biology , genetics , physics , quantum mechanics
The relevance of cell proliferation rate—defined as the 3 H‐thymidine labeling index ( 3 H‐dT LI)—in predicting response to treatment (complete remission, CR), freedom from progression (FFP) and overall survival (OS) was evaluated in 86 patients with diffuse large‐cell lymphoma (DLCL). The biologic variable was not associated with most of the established clinical factors, such as gender and age of the patient, performance status, B symptoms, tumor bulk, or extranodal disease, but was directly related to stage. 3 H‐dT LI significantly predicted short‐ and long‐term clinical outcome. In fact, more patients with slowly proliferating DLCL reached CR and had longer median FFP and OS than patients with rapidly proliferating DLCL. Multiple‐regression analysis to evaluate the relative contribution of the different biologic and clinical variables in predicting CR, FFP and OS showed that 3 H‐dT LI and Ann Arbor stage were the only 2 stable factors, which retained their prognostic significance even in the presence of other conventional factors, and that 3 H‐dT LI was the most powerful as an indicator of risk of death in DLCL patients.