Prognostic influence of tumor-infiltrating mast cells in patients with follicular lymphoma treated with rituximab and CHOP

Gene expression profiling and immunohistochemical studies have demonstrated that nonmalignant tumor infiltrating inflammatory cells contribute to clinical outcome in patients with follicular lymphoma (FL). Particularly, tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) content correlates with longer survival rates after immunochemotherapy. Here we investigated the prognostic importance of tumor-associated mast cells (MCs) and their relation to TAMs in patients with FL treated with a combination of rituximab (R) and cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) chemotherapy. Of the 98 patients, 70 received R-CHOP at diagnosis and 28 at relapse. According to Kaplan-Meier estimates, the patients with high MC content had a worse 4-year progression-free survival (PIFS) than the ones with low MC content after R-CHOP therapy (34% vs 74%, P = .002). The adverse prognostic value of MCs was seen both for the patients treated at diagnosis and at relapse, whereas no such impact on PFS was observed for the control patients treated with chemotherapy only (P = .4). When the TAM-related PIFS was analyzed separately in patients with high and low MC contents, the positive prognostic effect of TAM was seen only in patients with few MCs. Taken together, the data demonstrate that a high MC score is associated with unfavorable prognosis and it eliminates the positive prognostic value of TAMs in patients with FL treated with immunochemotherapy.