Liquid biopsy in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: utility in cell origin determination and survival prediction in Chinese patients

Abstract

The utility of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in classifying the cell origin of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has not been explored in the Chinese population. In this study, we aimed to investigate the genetic characteristics of DLBCL based on both tumor and ctDNA sequencing and to assess the predictive value of ctDNA in DLBCL. A targeted sequencing panel of 413 genes was applied to tumor biopsies and paired plasma samples obtained from 30 patients with DLBCL before therapeutic intervention (pretreatment). The concordance between plasma genotyping classification and traditional cell-of-origin classification using tumor tissue was 80.0% (20/25). Patients with higher baseline plasma ctDNA levels had poorer survival compared to those with lower ctDNA levels (2-year progression survival rate: 40.0% vs. 80.0%, p = 0.011; 5-year overall survival rate: 30.5% vs. 70.0%, p = 0.004). Collectively, our results demonstrated that pretreatment ctDNA analysis could assist origin determination and prognosis prediction clinically.

Keywords:

• Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
• circulating tumor DNA
• cell-of-origin
• prognosis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by National Science and Technology Major Project for “Significant New Drug Development” (2020zx09201-023), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81870154, 81972807, 81670187, 81970179 and 81700197); Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 7202025 and 7202026), Capital's Funds for Health Improvement and Research (No. 2018-1-2151), Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (Z181100001918019) and Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals' Ascent Plan (No. DFL20151001).