Frequent altered distribution of peripheral B-lymphocyte subsets in pediatric and adolescent patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma

Abstract

Peripheral lymphopenia is a well-known negative prognostic marker in classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). We characterized the peripheral B-cell compartment in a prospective cohort of 83 pediatric cHL patients. We observed significantly low total B-cell counts (<100 cells/µl) in 31 of 83 patients (37%). More specifically, there was a smaller peripheral IgD^highCD27^– naïve B-cell pool among B-cell lymphopenic patients than for non-B-cell lymphopenic patients (p < 0.01). The B-cell count was lower in patients without in situ Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) expression than among those with in situ EBV expression (p = 0.03). Peripheral B-cell lymphopenia was associated with the presence of poor prognostic features, such as advanced lymphoma stage (p < 0.01) and the presence of B symptoms (p = 0.04). Of interest, B-cell lymphopenia resolved in all six studied patients in long-term remission. Our findings support that cHL tumor-associated factors interfere with the distribution of peripheral B-cell subsets.

Keywords:

• B-cells
• microenvironment
• Hodgkin lymphoma
• children
• adolescent

Acknowledgements

We thank the “Fédération Enfants et Santé et de la Société Française de lutte contre les Cancers et les leucémies de l'Enfant et l'adolescent” and the “Capucine association” for funding this study, all the clinical investigators, and the Centre Hospitalier de Versailles for editorial assistance.

Author contributions

LH, RC, HC, PR, and YT performed the blood experiments and analyzed the resulting data. SB and AC performed the pathological experiments and analyzed the resulting data. LH, RC, RK, and CB analyzed the data and wrote the paper. CB, JLP, and TL designed the study.

Disclosure statement

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