Association of CD38 Antigen Expression with Other Prognostic Parameters in Early Stages of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

The expression of the surface molecule CD38 on B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) cells has recently been described as a prognostic marker for patient survival. We have analyzed CD19/CD38 expression in 81 patients with predominantly early stages of B-CLL (69 Binet A, seven Binet B, five Binet C). Sixty-two patients (77%) had less than 30% CD38+/CD19+ cells, while 19 (23%) had ≥30%. There was a significant association between Binet stages (A vs. B+C, p < 0.0001), Rai stages (0-II vs. III+IV, p < 0.001) and CD38 expression, confirming the published cut-off level of 30%. A particularly strong association between CD38 expression was found with soluble CD23 (sCD23) levels of ≥2000 U/ml (p < 0.0001) and β2-microglobulin (β2 MG) serum levels of ≥3 mg/l (p < 0.0001) indicating that CD38 is a marker of tumor mass as well as disease progression. A borderline association was found with lymphocyte doubling time (LDT) < 12 months (p = 0.05) due to low patient numbers, while there was no association with age, ...