Increased soluble serum cd163 (scd163) levels predict a short disease free survival in diffuse large b‐cell lymphoma (dlbcl)

Introduction: Monocyte counts were found of prognostic significance in DLBCL, implying the possible contribution of monocyte-macrophage lineage cells in disease pathogenesis. These cells secrete among others sCD163, the role of which has not been investigated yet. Aims: To study eventual correlation of serum sCD163 levels with prognosis in DLBCL. Patients and Methods: Twenty-six DLBCL patients were studied with a median follow-up time of 21 months (2–138). Ten were diagnosed in early stages (1 and 2) while the resting majority was in advanced stages (3 and 4). Six patients (23%) relapsed early during disease course. Seven patients succumbed to their disease and other 3 from other causes. SerumCD163 measurements were performed by ELISA (Duo-Set R&D Quantiquine) according to the manufacturer’s instructions in frozen sera kept at diagnosis. The SPSS v.26 software was used for statistical analysis and survival curves were drawn by Kaplan-Mayer method and compared by the log-rank test. Results: Serum sCD163 levels ranged from 34072 to 164912 pg/mL (median 134672 pg/mL) in patients and from 104420 to >140000 pg/mL (median 117952 pg/mL) in 15 healthy individuals. Patients with serum sCD163 levels above median had a higher probability of relapse and a shorter disease free survival (p = 0.004), compared to the others (figure). Overall survival was not affected by sCD163 levels. Keywords: aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, targeting the tumor microenvironment No conflicts of interests pertinent to the abstract.