Anticancer Res. 2002 Sep-Oct;22(5):2899-901.
Immunohistochemical detection of C-kit (CD117) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) overexpression in mantle cell lymphoma.
Potti A, Ganti AK, Kargas S, Koch M.
Department of Medicine, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Fargo, ND 58102, USA. apotti@medicine.nodak.eduBACKGROUND: Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a low-grade lymphoproliferative malignancy that is extremely refractory to chemotherapy. Commonly used treatments have yielded unfavorable response rates (30% complete remission). We evaluated the incidence of c-kit (CD117) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) overexpression in patients with MCL in an effort to identify possible targets for therapeutic intervention. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with a diagnosis of MCL based on CD5 positivity associated with cyclin D1 positivity and CD23 negativity on the lymph node/bone marrow specimen were included in our retrospective study. CD117 overexpression was performed using immunohistochemistry on archival specimens. VEGF expression was detected by the avidin-biotin-complex method. RESULTS: Between 1997 and 2001, we identified 17 patients with MCL (9 males, 8 females) with a mean age of 57 years (age range: 42-66 years). The mean overall survival was 34 months (range: 11-60 months). VEGF expression was identified in 7 out of 17 (41.18%) patients with MCL. Among the VEGF-positive patients (n = 7, 41.1%), the mean survival was 24 months (range: 11-42 months), while patients without VEGF expression (n = 10, 58.9%) had a mean survival of 44 months (range: 21-60 months). CD117 expression was identified in only 2 out of 17 (1.17%) patients in our study. CONCLUSION: Our study evaluated the role of c-kit and VEGF overexpression in MCL. Although CD117 may not be of therapeutic significance, target-directed signal transduction inhibition therapy using VEGF-inhibitors may be a distinct possibility in a select group of patients with MCL. Future larger studies are urgently needed to elaborate the role of VEGF in MCL.
PMID: 12530014 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]