Publications by authors named "Gustav Hedström"

Introduction: The murine double minute 2 (MDM2) gene encodes a regulatory protein of the p53 pathway. A single nucleotide polymorphism (T to G change) at position 309 (SNP309) in the promotor region of MDM2 affects the transcription activity of MDM2 and has been found to be a negative prognostic marker in several cancers.

Patients And Methods: In this study, the MDM2 SNP309 polymorphism was analysed in 201 patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and analysed in relation to clinical characteristics and prognosis.

Results: Patients homozygous for SNP309T had a significantly longer overall survival, lymphoma-specific survival and disease-free survival (P = 0.002; 0.004 and 0.006 respectively) compared to patients carrying a G allele. The longer overall survival was seen in the subgroup of patients not treated with Rituximab, however, not for Rituximab-treated patients (P = 0.01 and 0.2 respectively). The group homozygous for the T allele also had lower age at diagnosis, a tendency towards lower aaIPI and a significantly lower proportion of patients with p53 aberrations compared to the group including at least one G allele. However, the survival differences persisted even after removal of cases with known p53 aberrations from the analysis.

Conclusion: Polymorphism in MDM2 SNP309 could be correlated to some clinical characteristics and for patients not treated with immunotherapy, a G allele was correlated to poor survival, whereas no survival differences were found for patients treated with Rituximab. Herewith, we provide additional information about Diffuse large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) biology and highlight the importance of evaluation of molecular markers in relation to treatment.

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a heterogeneous group of B cell lymphomas. MicroRNA expression provides a new and interesting tool for understanding the biology and clinical course of DLBCL. The present study presents microRNA-129-5p expression data from DLBCL patients treated with CHOP or R-CHOP. Patients with low microRNA-129-5p expression had a median survival of 23 months and a significantly shorter overall survival (P = 0.0042) compared to patients with high microRNA-129-5p expression, who had a median survival of 58 months. We also found that patients treated with R-CHOP only and displaying low microRNA-129-5p expression had a significantly shorter overall survival compared to patients with high microRNA-129-5p expression; all such patients were still alive at the time of last follow-up (P = 0.043). No significant difference was found among microRNA-129-5p expression in tumor tissue, the tissue surrounding the tumor, and normal controls. To our knowledge, this is the first report to show that the expression of microRNA-129-5p can affect the clinical outcome of DLBCL patients and that microRNA-129-5p may be involved in the biology of DLBCL development, although larger studies are necessary to confirm this. Further investigations may also help to elucidate the biological role of microRNA-129-5p in DLBCL.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a heterogeneous group of B-cell lymphomas. A new and important tool for understanding the biology and clinical course of DLBCL is microRNA expression. This study presents microRNA-200c expression data from 61 DLBCL patients treated with CHOP or R-CHOP. Patients with high microRNA-200c expression had a median survival of 20.3 months and a significantly shorter overall survival (P=0.019) compared to patients with low microRNA-200c expression, who had a median survival of 35.8 months. We also found that patients treated with R-CHOP only and displaying high microRNA-200c expression had a significantly shorter overall survival compared to patients with low microRNA-200c expression, where all patients were still alive at the time of the last follow-up (P=0.0036). Lastly, we found that patients with high microRNA-200c expression had a significantly shorter time from initial diagnosis to the first relapse compared to patients with low microRNA-200c expression (P=0.0001). To our knowledge, this is the first study showing that the expression of microRNA-200c affects the clinical outcome of DLBCL patients, and that microRNA-200c is involved in the biology of DLBCL development, although larger studies are necessary to confirm this. Further investigations may also help to elucidate the biological role of microRNA-200c in DLBCL.