Prognostic relevance of apoptotic cell death in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas: a multivariate survival analysis including Ki67 and p53 oncoprotein expression

Aims : To evaluate the independent prognostic value of apoptotic versus proliferative fractions in a series of 92 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL).  

Methods and results

Apoptotic fractions were quantified by use of the TdT (terminal deoxynucleotidyl-transferase)-mediated in-situ end-labelling technique (TUNEL), the percentage of positive cells constituting the apoptotic index (AI). Proliferative rate was expressed as percentage of Ki67 positive cells (Ki67 LI). Tissues were also stained for p53 protein with the DO-1 antibody. Patients were followed up until death ( n  = 33) or for an average of 63 months ( n  = 56). AI increased with malignancy grade and proliferative activity but was not related to location, cell of origin, clinical stage, bone marrow involvement and p53 expression. In multivariate analysis, overall survival was independently influenced by grade, stage, p53 LI and chemotherapy. The independent predictors of disease-free survival were Ki67 LI location and chemotherapy. AI turned out to be the only independent (negative) predictor of post-relapse survival. On the other hand, a low Ki67 LI increased the risk of relapse (logistic regression analysis) whereas a low p53 LI increased the probability of complete response.  

Conclusions

Our results suggest that the combined assessment of apoptotic fraction, proliferative rate and p53 expression may provide important prognostic information independent of other clinicopathological parameters in NHL.