[Prognostic significance of CD20 expression in Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin's Lymphoma].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells of classical Hodgkin's Lymphoma (CHL) express B-cell marker CD20 with a reported frequency of 5%-58%. The prognostic significance of CD20 expression in HRS cells of CHL is still controversial. This study was to investigate the prognostic significance of CD20 expression in naive CHL patients. METHODS The expression of CD20, CD15 and CD30 in 70 specimens of CHL were detected by immunohistochemistry; tumor morphology was observed with HE staining. A sample with CD20 expression on more than 10% of HRS cells was considered CD20-positive. The failure-free survival (FFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were compared by log-rank test. Cox proportional hazard model was used in multivariate analysis. RESULTS Of the 70 cases of CHL, 21 (30.0%) were CD20-positive, 26 (37.1%) were CD15-positive, and all were CD30-positive. The positive rate of CD20 was significantly higher in the patients aged > or =45 years than in those aged <45 years (53.3% vs. 23.6%, P=0.026). The patients were followed up for a median of 58.3 months. The 5-year FFS rates were 76.2% in CD20-positive patients and 77.6% in CD20-negative patients (P=0.484). The 5-year OS rates were 80.4% in CD20-positive patients and 92.5% in CD20-negative patients (P=0.006). Cox multivariate analysis showed that age and stage were independent prognostic factors for FFS and OS. CONCLUSIONS The positive rate of CD20 is relatively low in HRS cells of CHL. It is higher in the patients aged > or =45 years than in those aged <45 years. However, according to our results, the expression of CD20 is not an independent prognostic factor for FFS and OS of naive CHL patients.