Publications

17 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 17

Abstract (Expand)

BACKGROUND: Germinal center-derived B cell lymphomas are tumors of the lymphoid tissues representing one of the most heterogeneous malignancies. Here we characterize the variety of transcriptomic phenotypes of this disease based on 873 biopsy specimens collected in the German Cancer Aid MMML (Molecular Mechanisms in Malignant Lymphoma) consortium. They include diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), follicular lymphoma (FL), Burkitt's lymphoma, mixed FL/DLBCL lymphomas, primary mediastinal large B cell lymphoma, multiple myeloma, IRF4-rearranged large cell lymphoma, MYC-negative Burkitt-like lymphoma with chr. 11q aberration and mantle cell lymphoma. METHODS: We apply self-organizing map (SOM) machine learning to microarray-derived expression data to generate a holistic view on the transcriptome landscape of lymphomas, to describe the multidimensional nature of gene regulation and to pursue a modular view on co-expression. Expression data were complemented by pathological, genetic and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: We present a transcriptome map of B cell lymphomas that allows visual comparison between the SOM portraits of different lymphoma strata and individual cases. It decomposes into one dozen modules of co-expressed genes related to different functional categories, to genetic defects and to the pathogenesis of lymphomas. On a molecular level, this disease rather forms a continuum of expression states than clearly separated phenotypes. We introduced the concept of combinatorial pattern types (PATs) that stratifies the lymphomas into nine PAT groups and, on a coarser level, into five prominent cancer hallmark types with proliferation, inflammation and stroma signatures. Inflammation signatures in combination with healthy B cell and tonsil characteristics associate with better overall survival rates, while proliferation in combination with inflammation and plasma cell characteristics worsens it. A phenotypic similarity tree is presented that reveals possible progression paths along the transcriptional dimensions. Our analysis provided a novel look on the transition range between FL and DLBCL, on DLBCL with poor prognosis showing expression patterns resembling that of Burkitt's lymphoma and particularly on 'double-hit' MYC and BCL2 transformed lymphomas. CONCLUSIONS: The transcriptome map provides a tool that aggregates, refines and visualizes the data collected in the MMML study and interprets them in the light of previous knowledge to provide orientation and support in current and future studies on lymphomas and on other cancer entities.

Authors: H. Loeffler-Wirth, M. Kreuz, L. Hopp, A. Arakelyan, A. Haake, S. B. Cogliatti, A. C. Feller, M. L. Hansmann, D. Lenze, P. Moller, H. K. Muller-Hermelink, E. Fortenbacher, E. Willscher, G. Ott, A. Rosenwald, C. Pott, C. Schwaenen, H. Trautmann, S. Wessendorf, H. Stein, M. Szczepanowski, L. Trumper, M. Hummel, W. Klapper, R. Siebert, M. Loeffler, H. Binder

Date Published: 30th Apr 2019

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: B-cell lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma

Abstract (Expand)

To study if obesity is a risk factor in elderly patients (>60 years) with aggressive B-cell lymphoma, the outcomes of 576 elderly patients treated with rituximab in the RICOVER-60 trial were analysed in a retrospective study with regard to body mass index (BMI) and gender. Of the 576 patients, 1% had low body weight (BMI < 18.5), 38% were normal weight (18.5 </= BMI < 25), 42% were overweight (25 </= BMI < 30) and 19% were obese (BMI >/= 30). Event-free (EFS), progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) according to BMI showed no significant differences for all and for male patients. EFS (P = 0.041), PFS (P = 0.038) and OS (P = 0.031) were significantly better for female non-obese patients. A multivariate analysis adjusted for International Prognostic Index risk factors confirmed these results, with the following hazard ratios (HR) for obesity (BMI >/= 30) for EFS/PFS/OS: all patients - 1.4/1.4/1.4 (not significant); male patients - 1.2/1.2/1.0 (not significant) and female patients - 1.7 (P = 0.032)/1.9 (P = 0.022)/2.0 (P = 0.017). In conclusion, obesity is a risk factor that influences treatment outcome in elderly female patients with aggressive B-cell lymphoma treated with R-CHOP (rituximab + cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisolone). The inferior outcomes in obese female patients may be due to faster rituximab clearance in obese females.

Authors: K. Hohloch, B. Altmann, M. Pfreundschuh, M. Loeffler, N. Schmitz, F. Zettl, M. Ziepert, L. Trumper

Date Published: 2nd Dec 2017

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: obesity, B-cell lymphoma

Abstract (Expand)

Background: The prognosis of elderly patients with aggressive B-non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after first lymphoma-related treatment failure (TF-L) is not well described. Methods: We analysed patient characteristics including the presence of MYC rearrangements and MYC-expression immunohistochemistry (IHC) at diagnosis and modalities of salvage therapy and their impact on the prognosis of patients between 61 and 80 years who had been treated on the RICOVER-60 trial. Results: TF-L occurred in 301 of the 1222 (24.6%) patients; 297 patients could be analysed. Prognosis was extremely poor in patients with primary progressive disease or early relapse (</=12 months) with median survivals of 3.3 and 6.4 months. Survival after TF-L was significantly lower in patients pretreated with R-CHOP compared with CHOP (23.0% versus 36.4% at 2 years, P = 0.016). In patients with MYC translocation at diagnosis Rituximab reduced the risk of TF-L from 58.8% to 26.3%. Survival after TF-L was significant longer for patients after CHOP without MYC translocations (31.8% versus 0% at 2 years, P < 0.001) or negative MYC-IHC (41.0% versus 16.8% at 2 years, P = 0.017) but not after R-CHOP. 224 patients (75.4%) received salvage therapy. Rituximab was part of salvage therapy in 57.4% and improved 2-year survival rate from 20.7% to 46.8% (P < 0.001). The benefit of R was significant after first-line CHOP [2-year overall survival (OS) 49.6% versus 19.1%, P < 0.001] as well as after R-CHOP (2-year OS 33.1% and 22.5%, P = 0.034). For patients pretreated with R-CHOP long-term survival was below 15% regardless of the treatment chosen. Conclusion: MYC rearrangement and IHC are adverse prognostic factors after TF-L for CHOP treated patients, rituximab as part of first-line therapy reduced the effects of MYC-break. Rituximab improves results of any type of salvage therapy; however, survival after progression/relapse of aggressive B-cell lymphoma in elderly patients pretreated with (R)-CHOP is poor regardless of treatment chosen.

Authors: B. Glass, A. J. Dohm, L. H. Truemper, M. Pfreundschuh, A. Bleckmann, G. G. Wulf, A. Rosenwald, M. Ziepert, N. Schmitz

Date Published: 1st Dec 2017

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: B-cell lymphoma

Abstract (Expand)

TP53 is mutated in 20-25% of aggressive B-cell lymphoma (B-NHL). To date, no studies have addressed the impact of TP53 mutations in prospective clinical trial cohorts. To evaluate the impact of TP53 mutation to current risk models in aggressive B-NHL, we investigated TP53 gene mutations within the RICOVER-60 trial. Of 1,222 elderly patients (aged 61-80 years) enrolled in the study and randomized to six or eight cycles of CHOP-14 with or without Rituximab (NCT00052936), 265 patients were analyzed for TP53 mutations. TP53 mutations were demonstrated in 63 of 265 patients (23.8%). TP53 mutation was associated with higher LDH (65% vs. 37%; p < 0.001), higher international prognostic index-Scores (IPI 4/5 27% vs. 12%; p = 0.025) and B-symptoms (41% vs. 24%; p = 0.011). Patients with TP53 mutation were less likely to obtain a complete remission CR/CRu (CR unconfirmed) 61.9% (mut) vs. 79.7% (wt) (p = 0.007). TP53 mutations were associated with decreased event-free (EFS), progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) (median observation time of 40.2 months): the 3 year EFS, PFS and OS were 42% (vs. 60%; p = 0.012), 42% (vs. 67.5%; p < 0.001) and 50% (vs. 76%; p < 0.001) for the TP53 mutation group. In a Cox proportional hazard analysis adjusting for IPI-factors and treatment arms, TP53 mutation was shown to be an independent predictor of EFS (HR 1.5), PFS (HR 2.0) and OS (HR 2.3; p < 0.001). TP53 mutations are independent predictors of survival in untreated patients with aggressive CD20+ lymphoma. TP53 mutations should be considered for risk models in DLBCL and strategies to improve outcome for patients with mutant TP53 must be developed.

Authors: T. Zenz, M. Kreuz, M. Fuge, W. Klapper, H. Horn, A. M. Staiger, D. Winter, H. Helfrich, J. Huellein, M. L. Hansmann, H. Stein, A. Feller, P. Moller, N. Schmitz, L. Trumper, M. Loeffler, R. Siebert, A. Rosenwald, G. Ott, M. Pfreundschuh, S. Stilgenbauer

Date Published: 1st Oct 2017

Publication Type: Journal article

Human Diseases: non-Hodgkin lymphoma, B-cell lymphoma

Abstract (Expand)

By the modern molecular biological approaches that exploit the availability of high quality gene expression data, it is made clear that flexible and robust responses of cellular programs are encoded in the relations between gene expression values. These relations naturally define a network where they stand for edges between the nodes that stand for the genes. The wiring of these networks often found to be dysregulated in cancer. Different system biological approaches that rely on correlations, differential equations and logical analysis are used to probe these relations in gene expression data especially. In our work we investigated selected biological functions in aggressive germinal center B-cell lymphoma in terms of a logical analysis of gene-regulation in Boolean space and a signal propagation algorithm considering network topology based on gene expression data. We especially aimed at studying the activity of the MYC gene as a key player. It is shown that the functional output of a gene network is affected by the states of the genes and also by the wirings between them. Our results support the key function of MYC in lymphoma biology. In addition, we showed that genes can alter functional output of the network by alternative mechanisms like reducing the variance in propagating signal and locking it to a certain level.

Authors: V. Cakir, H. Loeffler-Wirth, A. Arakelyan, H. Binder

Date Published: 17th May 2017

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: B-cell lymphoma

Abstract (Expand)

We recently reported a truncating deletion in the NFKBIE gene, which encodes IkappaBepsilon, a negative feedback regulator of NF-kappaB, in clinically aggressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Because preliminary data indicate enrichment of NFKBIE aberrations in other lymphoid malignancies, we screened a large patient cohort (n = 1460) diagnosed with different lymphoid neoplasms. While NFKBIE deletions were infrequent in follicular lymphoma, splenic marginal zone lymphoma, and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (<2%), slightly higher frequencies were seen in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma, and primary central nervous system lymphoma (3% to 4%). In contrast, a remarkably high frequency of NFKBIE aberrations (46/203 cases [22.7%]) was observed in primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (3/11 cases [27.3%]). NFKBIE-deleted PMBL patients were more often therapy refractory (P = .022) and displayed inferior outcome compared with wild-type patients (5-year survival, 59% vs 78%; P = .034); however, they appeared to benefit from radiotherapy (P =022) and rituximab-containing regimens (P = .074). NFKBIE aberrations remained an independent factor in multivariate analysis (P = .003) and when restricting the analysis to immunochemotherapy-treated patients (P = .008). Whole-exome sequencing and gene expression profiling verified the importance of NF-kappaB deregulation in PMBL. In summary, we identify NFKBIE aberrations as a common genetic event across B-cell malignancies and highlight NFKBIE deletions as a novel poor-prognostic marker in PMBL.

Authors: L. Mansouri, D. Noerenberg, E. Young, E. Mylonas, M. Abdulla, M. Frick, F. Asmar, V. Ljungstrom, M. Schneider, K. Yoshida, A. Skaftason, T. Pandzic, B. Gonzalez, A. Tasidou, N. Waldhueter, A. Rivas-Delgado, M. Angelopoulou, M. Ziepert, C. M. Arends, L. Couronne, D. Lenze, C. D. Baldus, C. Bastard, J. Okosun, J. Fitzgibbon, B. Dorken, H. G. Drexler, D. Roos-Weil, C. A. Schmitt, H. D. Munch-Petersen, T. Zenz, M. L. Hansmann, J. C. Strefford, G. Enblad, O. A. Bernard, E. Ralfkiaer, M. Erlanson, P. Korkolopoulou, M. Hultdin, T. Papadaki, K. Gronbaek, A. Lopez-Guillermo, S. Ogawa, R. Kuppers, K. Stamatopoulos, N. Stavroyianni, G. Kanellis, A. Rosenwald, E. Campo, R. M. Amini, G. Ott, T. P. Vassilakopoulos, M. Hummel, R. Rosenquist, F. Damm

Date Published: 8th Dec 2016

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: B-cell lymphoma

Abstract (Expand)

The mitotic spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) maintains genome stability and marks an important target for antineoplastic therapies. However, it has remained unclear how cells execute cell fate decisions under conditions of SAC-induced mitotic arrest. Here, we identify USP9X as the mitotic deubiquitinase of the X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) and demonstrate that deubiquitylation and stabilization of XIAP by USP9X lead to increased resistance toward mitotic spindle poisons. We find that primary human aggressive B-cell lymphoma samples exhibit high USP9X expression that correlate with XIAP overexpression. We show that high USP9X/XIAP expression is associated with shorter event-free survival in patients treated with spindle poison-containing chemotherapy. Accordingly, aggressive B-cell lymphoma lines with USP9X and associated XIAP overexpression exhibit increased chemoresistance, reversed by specific inhibition of either USP9X or XIAP. Moreover, knockdown of USP9X or XIAP significantly delays lymphoma development and increases sensitivity to spindle poisons in a murine Emu-Myc lymphoma model. Together, we specify the USP9X-XIAP axis as a regulator of the mitotic cell fate decision and propose that USP9X and XIAP are potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in aggressive B-cell lymphoma.

Authors: K. Engel, M. Rudelius, J. Slawska, L. Jacobs, B. Ahangarian Abhari, B. Altmann, J. Kurutz, A. Rathakrishnan, V. Fernandez-Saiz, A. Brunner, B. S. Targosz, F. Loewecke, C. J. Gloeckner, M. Ueffing, S. Fulda, M. Pfreundschuh, L. Trumper, W. Klapper, U. Keller, P. J. Jost, A. Rosenwald, C. Peschel, F. Bassermann

Date Published: 19th Jun 2016

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: B-cell lymphoma

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