Repp86: a new prognostic marker in mantle cell lymphoma.

OBJECTIVES

Proliferation indices are important prognostic factors for the clinical outcome of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). We investigated whether the expression of repp86 (restrictedly expressed proliferation-associated protein 86 kDa), a new proliferation specific marker expressed in the cell cycle phases G(2), S and M, but not in G(1), correlates with the clinical course in patients with MCL.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

Biopsy specimens from 94 untreated patients enrolled in two multicenter trials were investigated immunohistochemically with monoclonal antibodies against CD20, CD5, CD3, CD23, cyclin D1, and repp86 (Ki-S2).

RESULTS

Patients with 0-1% repp86 expression had a median overall survival time of 71.0 months, compared with 38.2 months for patients with 1-5% positive cells and 25.4 months for patients with 5-10% positive tumor cells. Patients with repp86 expression of more than 10% showed the shortest survival (median: 15.0 months). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a significant difference in the overall survival time between patients with very high (>10%) and very low (0-1%) repp86 expression (P < 0.0001) in the tumor cells. The multivariate analysis revealed repp86 expression to be superior to other clinical characteristics as a prognostic factor (P = 0.0016).

CONCLUSION

Based on these findings, repp86 expression is a new important prognostic factor in MCL.