Survivin expression in lymph nodes, affected by lymphoma and reactive hyperplasia.

Survivin is a member of the inhibitors from the apoptosis family over-expressed in various human cancers. The aim of the study was to evaluate the expression of survivin in lymph nodes, invaded by non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (nHL) and in lymph nodes reactive hyperplasia. We analysed paraffin sections obtained from 50 patients with nHL and from 13 patients with reactive hyperplasia using, an anti-survivin antibody. There was abundant immunoreactivity cytoplasm in 34/50 (68%) patients with nHL and in only 5/13 (38%) with reactive hyperplasia. Out of the 27 patients with aggressive nHL, 19 (70%) revealed survivin expression in almost all tumour cells. Out of the 23 patients with indolent nHL, 16 (70%) revealed the expression but with lower immunoreactivity score. The study indicates that patients with nHL presented a high level of survivin expression, it was more pronounced in aggressive than in indolent nHL.