CELL-PROLIFERATION AS A LONG-TERM PROGNOSTIC FACTOR IN DIFFUSE LARGE-CELL LYMPHOMAS

The relevance of cell proliferation rate-defined as the H-3-thymidine labeling index (H-3-dT L1)-in predicting response to treatment (comple te remission, CR), freedom from progression (FFP) and overall survival (OS) was evaluated in 86 patients with diffuse large-cell lymphoma (D LCL). The biologic variable was not associated with most of the establ ished clinical factors, such as gender and age of the patient, perform ance status, B symptoms, tumor bulk, or extranodal disease, but was di rectly related to stage. H-3-dT L1 significantly predicted short- and long-term clinical outcome. In fact, more patients with slowly prolife rating DLCL reached CR and had longer median FFP and OS than patients with rapidly proliferating DLCL. Multiple-regression analysis to evalu ate the relative contribution of the different biologic and clinical v ariables in predicting CR, FFP and OS showed that H-3-dT L1 and Ann Ar bor stage were the only 2 stable factors, which retained their prognos tic significance even in the presence of other conventional factors, a nd that H-3-dT L1 was the most powerful as an indicator of risk of dea th in DLCL patients.