Flow-cytometry-based evaluation of peripheral blood lymphocytes in prognostication of newly diagnosed DLBCL patients

Abstract Aims We aimed to analyse whether quantitative assessment of peripheral blood lymphocyte CD19 +  CD20 +  CD22 +  CD79a + B cells, CD3 +  CD4 +  CD5 +  CD8 + T cells and CD4 +  CD25 +++  Foxp3high Treg can improve prognostication in DLBCL patients. Methods The absolute count of lymphocytes, B-cells, T-cells and Treg-cells as well as the percentage of apoptotic cells were assessed by means of flow cytometry in all studied subjects. Results Significantly lower level of ALC and the percentage of apoptotic cells have been observed exclusively in DLBCL patients with HR. We also showed, that in comparison with LR, in HR and MR groups, there is a significant decrease in the absolute number of T-cells and Tregs. The applied treatment does no normalize the number of B-cells, Tregs and apoptotic cells only in the case of HR patients. Conclusions Lymphopenia, the decreased absolute number of T cells, Tregs, and a percentage of apoptotic cells, correlates with clinical staging in DLBCL patients. The increased number of B cells and the decreased level of Tregs and apoptotic cells after treatment might predict a poor clinical outcome in patients treated with RCHOP. Thereby, flow-cytometry-based evaluation of peripheral blood lymphocytes may be useful in prognostication of newly diagnosed DLBCL patients.