The prognostic roles of hepatitis B virus antibody in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients

Abstract

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has been correlated with virus infection and immunity status. We retrospectively analyzed the association between HBV antibody and DLBCL development in HBsAg^- patients. Compared with HBeAb^- patients, HBeAb⁺ patients displayed unique clinical features. HBV antibody-negative patients had better therapeutic efficiency (p < .05). The media progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of HBV antibody-positive group were shorter than the negative group (p < .05). Furthermore, we found positive association between CD21 and HBsAb and their synergistic effect for prognostic predication. Interestingly, the effect of Rituximab in prognostic improvement was more significant in HBV antibody-positive group than negative group. Univariate analysis showed that HBV antibody was independent risk factor for disease prognosis. Altogether, our investigations identified for the first time the close association between HBV antibody and clinical prognosis in DLBCL patients. These findings provide potential biomarker to predict the effect of Rituximab and prognosis in DLBCL patients.

Keywords:

• Hepatitis B virus
• antibody
• diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
• rituximab
• prognosis
• clinical outcome

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Translational Research Grant of National Clinical Research Center for Hematologic Diseases (NCRCH) (No.2020ZKMB01); National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82070203, No. 81800194, No. 81270598, No. 81473486, and No. 81770210); Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province (No.2018CXGC1213); Technology Development Projects of Shandong Province (No.2017GSF18189); Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No.ZR2018BH011); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No.2020M672103); Development Project of Youth Innovation Teams in Colleges and Universities of Shandong Province (No.2020KJL006); Technology Development Project of Jinan City (No.201805065); Taishan Scholars Program of Shandong Province; Academic promotion programme of Shandong First Medical University; Shandong Provincial Engineering Research Center of Lymphoma.