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- Abdulla, Maysaa, et al.
(author)
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Cell-of-origin determined by both gene expression profiling and immunohistochemistry is the strongest predictor of survival in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
- 2020
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In: American Journal of Hematology. - : Wiley. - 0361-8609 .- 1096-8652. ; 95:1, s. 57-67
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The tumor cells in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) are considered to originate from germinal center derived B-cells (GCB) or activated B-cells (ABC). Gene expression profiling (GEP) is preferably used to determine the cell of origin (COO). However, GEP is not widely applied in clinical practice and consequently, several algorithms based on immunohistochemistry (IHC) have been developed. Our aim was to evaluate the concordance of COO assignment between the Lymph2Cx GEP assay and the IHC-based Hans algorithm, to decide which model is the best survival predictor. Both GEP and IHC were performed in 359 homogenously treated Swedish and Danish DLBCL patients, in a retrospective multicenter cohort. The overall concordance between GEP and IHC algorithm was 72%; GEP classified 85% of cases assigned as GCB by IHC, as GCB, while 58% classified as non-GCB by IHC, were categorized as ABC by GEP. There were significant survival differences (overall survival and progression-free survival) if cases were classified by GEP, whereas if cases were categorized by IHC only progression-free survival differed significantly. Importantly, patients assigned as non-GCB/ABC both by IHC and GEP had the worst prognosis, which was also significant in multivariate analyses. Double expression of MYC and BCL2 was more common in ABC cases and was associated with a dismal outcome. In conclusion, to determine COO both by IHC and GEP is the strongest outcome predictor to identify DLBCL patients with the worst outcome.
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3. |
- Abdulla, Maysaa, et al.
(author)
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PD-L1 and IDO1 are potential targets for treatment in patients with primary diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the CNS
- 2021
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In: Acta Oncologica. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0284-186X .- 1651-226X. ; 60:4, s. 531-538
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundProgrammed cell death 1 (PD-1) and its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2, as well as Indoleamine 2,3-deoxygenase (IDO1) can be expressed both by tumor and microenvironmental cells and are crucial for tumor immune escape. We aimed to evaluate the role of PD-1, its ligands and IDO1 in a cohort of patients with primary diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the CNS (PCNSL).Material and methodsTissue microarrays (TMAs) were constructed in 45 PCNSL cases. RNA extraction from whole tissue sections and RNA sequencing were successfully performed in 33 cases. Immunohistochemical stainings for PD-1, PD-L1/paired box protein 5 (PAX-5), PD-L2/PAX-5 and IDO1, and Epstein-Barr virus encoding RNA (EBER) in situ hybridization were analyzed.ResultsHigh proportions of PD-L1 and PD-L2 positive tumor cells were observed in 11% and 9% of cases, respectively. High proportions of PD-L1 and PD-L2 positive leukocytes were observed in 55% and 51% of cases, respectively. RNA sequencing revealed that gene expression of IDO1 was high in patients with high proportion of PD-L1 positive leukocytes (p = .01). Protein expression of IDO1 in leukocytes was detected in 14/45 cases, in 79% of these cases a high proportion of PD-L1 positive leukocytes was observed. Gene expression of IDO1 was high in EBER-positive cases (p = .0009) and protein expression of IDO1 was detected in five of six EBER-positive cases.ConclusionOur study shows a significant association between gene and protein expression of IDO1 and protein expression of PD-L1 in the tumor microenvironment of PCNSL, possibly of importance for prediction of response to immunotherapies.
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4. |
- Abdulla, Maysaa, et al.
(author)
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Prognostic impact of abdominal lymph node involvement in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
- 2020
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In: European Journal of Haematology. - : Wiley. - 0902-4441 .- 1600-0609. ; 104:3, s. 207-213
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: The prognostic value of site of nodal involvement in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) is mainly unknown. We aimed to determine the prognostic significance of nodal abdominal involvement in relation to tumour cell markers and clinical characteristics of 249 DLBCL patients in a retrospective single-centre study.METHODS: Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and thorax revealed pathologically enlarged abdominal lymph nodes in 156 patients, while in 93 patients there were no pathologically enlarged lymph nodes in the abdomen. In 81 cases, the diagnosis of DLBCL was verified by histopathological biopsy obtained from abdominal lymph node.RESULTS: Patients with abdominal nodal disease had inferior lymphoma-specific survival (P = .04) and presented with higher age-adjusted IPI (P < .001), lactate dehydrogenase (P < .001) and more often advanced stage (P < .001), bulky disease (P < .001), B symptoms (P < .001), and double expression of MYC and BCL2 (P = .02) compared to patients without nodal abdominal involvement, but less often extranodal involvement (P < .02). The worst outcome was observed in those where the abdominal nodal involvement was verified by histopathological biopsy.CONCLUSION: Diffuse large B-cell lymphomas patients with abdominal nodal disease had inferior outcome and more aggressive behaviour, reflected both in clinical and biological characteristics.
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5. |
- Abdulla, Maysaa
(author)
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Prognostic signficance of tumor cell markers in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with special emphasis on lymphoma localization
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of high-grade B-cell lymphoma with different clinical, morphological, immunophenotypical, and molecular features. DLBCL is curable in 60-70% of patients when treated with standard immunochemotherapy R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone).The main aim of this thesis is to identify prognostic factors in DLBCL by studying tumor markers (paper I and II), site of disease (paper III) and tumor microenvironment markers in primary DLBCL of the CNS (PCNSL) (paper IV) in order to better identify different risk groups of DLBCL patients.In papers I-III, we studied DLBCL patients treated homogeneously with R-CHOP. The negative prognostic impact of double protein expression of MYC and BCL2 so called “double-expressor lymphoma” (DEL) was a common finding in the three papers. In paper I, we detected DEL in 27% of patients, distributed with no significant difference between the germinal center derived B-cell subgroup (GCB) in 52% of cases and the non-GCB subgroup in 37% of cases. There was no significant difference in survival between GCB and non-GCB patients. The diagnosis in most of the patients with DEL was made on core needle biopsy in this paper. This finding was more thoroughly investigated in paper III with attention paid to the site of biopsy. In paper II, we evaluated the concordance of cell of origin (COO) assignment between gene expression profile (GEP) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) to identify the best predictor of survival in a DLBCL cohort including patients from Sweden and Denmark. The overall concordance between the two methods was 83%. We found that ABC/non-GCB subtype identified by both GEP and IHC is associated with the worst outcome. This finding indicates the importance of precise risk stratification in the era of precision medicine. DEL was more common in ABC patients categorized by GEP. In paper III, we identified abdominal lymph node involvement by radiological examination in 63% of DLBCL patients with an inferior survival, adverse clinical characteristics and significantly more frequent DEL. These findings may indicate a distinct biological behavior in patients with abdominal nodal disease. In paper IV, we demonstrated a significant association between IDO1 and PD-L1 in PCNSL patients. This finding indicates the crucial immunosuppressive role of these two molecules. In addition, in PCNSL low frequencies of MYC and BCL2 translocations and high frequency of BCL6 translocation was observed and DEL was detected in 49% of cases. Contrary to our results in systemic DLBCL in papers I-III, there was no significant prognostic impact of DEL in PCNSL.
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7. |
- Apollonio, Benedetta, et al.
(author)
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Tumor-activated lymph node fibroblasts suppress T cell function in diffuse large B cell lymphoma
- 2023
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In: Journal of Clinical Investigation. - : American Society for Clinical Investigation. - 0021-9738 .- 1558-8238. ; 133:13
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent transcriptomic-based analysis of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has highlighted the clinical relevance of LN fibroblast and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) signatures within the tumor microenvironment (TME). However, the immunomodulatory role of fibroblasts in lymphoma remains unclear. Here, by studying human and mouse DLBCL-LNs, we identified the presence of an aberrantly remodeled fibroblastic reticular cell (FRC) network expressing elevated fibroblast activated protein (FAP). RNA-Seq analyses revealed that exposure to DLBCL reprogrammed key immunoregulatory pathways in FRCs, including a switch from homeostatic to inflammatory chemokine expression and elevated antigen-presentation molecules. Functional assays showed that DLBCL-activated FRCs (DLBCL-FRCs) hindered optimal TIL and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell migration. Moreover, DLBCL-FRCs inhibited CD'+ TIL cytotoxicity in an antigen-specific manner. Notably, the interrogation of patient LNs with imaging mass cytometry identified distinct environments differing in their CD'+ TIL-FRC composition and spatial organization that associated with survival outcomes. We further demonstrated the potential to target inhibitory FRCs to rejuvenate interacting TILs. Cotreating organotypic cultures with FAP-targeted immunostimulatory drugs and a bispecific antibody (glofitamab) augmented antilymphoma TIL cytotoxicity. Our study reveals an immunosuppressive role of FRCs in DLBCL, with implications for immune evasion, disease pathogenesis, and optimizing immunotherapy for patients.
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8. |
- Gholiha, Alex Reza, et al.
(author)
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Checkpoint CD47 expression in classical Hodgkin lymphoma
- 2022
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In: British Journal of Haematology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0007-1048 .- 1365-2141. ; 197:5, s. 580-589
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The glycoprotein CD47 regulates antiphagocytic activity via signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPa). This study investigated CD47 expression on Hodgkin and Reed–Sternberg (HRS) cells in the classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) tumour microenvironment and its correlation with prognosis, programmed-death (PD) immune markers, and SIRPa+ leukocytes. We conducted immunohistochemistry with CD47 and SIRPa antibodies on diagnostic biopsies (tissue microarrays) from cHL patients from two cohorts (n = 178). In cohort I (n = 136) patients with high expression of CD47 on HRS cells (n = 48) had a significantly inferior event-free survival [hazard ratio (HR) = 5.57; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.78–11.20; p < 0.001] and overall survival (OS) (HR = 8.54; 95% CI, 3.19–22.90; p < 0.001) compared with patients with low expression (n = 88). The survival results remained statistically significant in multivariable Cox regression adjusted for known prognostic factors. In cohort II (n = 42) high HRS cell CD47 expression also carried shorter event-free survival (EFS) (HR = 5.96; 95% CI, 1.20–29.59; p = 0.029) and OS (HR = 5.61; 95% CI, 0.58–54.15; p = 0.136), although it did not retain statistical significance in the multivariable analysis. Further, high CD47 expression did not correlate with SIRPa+ leukocytes or PD-1, PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression. This study provides a deeper understanding of the role of CD47 in cHL during an era of emerging CD47 therapies.
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9. |
- Gholiha, Alex R., et al.
(author)
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Immune-Proteome Profiling in Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma Tumor Diagnostic Tissue
- 2022
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In: Cancers. - : MDPI. - 2072-6694. ; 14:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In classical Hodgkin Lymphoma (cHL), immunoediting via protein signaling is key to evading tumor surveillance. We aimed to identify immune-related proteins that distinguish diagnostic cHL tissues (=diagnostic tumor lysates, n = 27) from control tissues (reactive lymph node lysates, n = 30). Further, we correlated our findings with the proteome plasma profile between cHL patients (n = 26) and healthy controls (n = 27). We used the proximity extension assay (PEA) with the OlinkTM multiplex Immuno-Oncology panel, consisting of 92 proteins. Univariate, multivariate-adjusted analysis and Benjamini–Hochberg’s false discovery testing (=Padj) were performed to detect significant discrepancies. Proteins distinguishing cHL cases from controls were more numerous in plasma (30 proteins) than tissue (17 proteins), all Padj < 0.05. Eight of the identified proteins in cHL tissue (PD-L1, IL-6, CCL17, CCL3, IL-13, MMP12, TNFRS4, and LAG3) were elevated in both cHL tissues and cHL plasma compared with control samples. Six proteins distinguishing cHL tissues from controls tissues were significantly correlated to PD-L1 expression in cHL tissue (IL-6, MCP-2, CCL3, CCL4, GZMB, and IFN-gamma, all p ≤0.05). In conclusion, this study introduces a distinguishing proteomic profile in cHL tissue and potential immune-related markers of pathophysiological relevance
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10. |
- Gholiha, Alex R.
(author)
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Immunologic Markers in the Tumor Microenvironment of Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), cytokine regulation and cellular composition of the tumor microenvironment (TME) is crucial for tumor cell survival. In paper I, we examined the presence of CD138+ plasma cells and IgG4+ plasma cells in diagnostic cHL biopsies with immunohistochemistry (IHC). We found that increasing proportions of CD138+ plasma cells in the TME were associated with B-symptoms and inferior survival. IgG4+ plasma cells in the TME were a rare finding. In paper II, we investigated IL-6+ leukocytes and IL-6+ Hodgkin-Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells in the TME of primary cHL. We observed that an IL-6+ leukocyte proportion of ≤ 1% in the TME was an independent adverse prognostic marker for event-free and overall survival. Further, the presence of IL-6+ leukocytes correlated with an increased proportion of CD138+ plasma cells and CD68+macrophages in the TME. IL-6+ HRS cells correlated with increased proportions of CD68+macrophages, PD-L1+ leukocytes, and PD-L1+HRS cells. In paper III, we investigated CD47 surface glycoprotein expression on HRS cells in the TME. CD47 is mainly known to promote antiphagocytic signaling via interaction with the SIRPa protein on phagocytic cells. IHC for CD47 was performed on diagnostic cHL biopsies. Cases with high CD47 expression on HRS cells had an inferior survival in univariate and multivariate analyses, adjusting for established prognostic factors compared with patients with low CD47 expression on HRS cells. In paper IV, using the Proximity Extension Assay (PEA) method, we identified 17 distinguishing immunologic proteins in cHL when comparing cHL diagnostic tissue lysates with reactive lymph node lysates from controls. In addition, 8 of these 17 proteins were elevated in cHL plasma compared with plasma from controls. Several of the identified proteins have established evidence in cHL as PD-L1, IL-6, CCL17, LAG3, and several proteins were introduced as new potential targets. In conclusion, our findings increase our knowledge regarding several immunological elements within the TME of cHL introducing clinicopathological associations of prognostic and potential therapeutic future implications.
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