ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the clinical significance of peripheral blood NK cell number change in patients with mantle cell lymphoma.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Eight-four patients with mantle cell lymphoma treated in our hospital from November 2003 to November 2011 were studied, the venous blood was collected from all patients and detected with flow cytometry. The age, sex, pathologic type, B-symptoms, clinical stage, absolute NK count(ANKC), hemoglobin(Hb), lactate dehydrogenase(LDH) and β2-microglobulin(β2-MG) levels, bone marrow involuement(BMI) and the international prognostic index of mantle cell lymphoma(MIPI) were recorded. All patients were followed up.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were no significant differences in ANKC among different age, sex, B symptom, Ann Arbor stages, Hb, LDH and β2-MG levels, BMI and MIPI of patients with MCL(P>0.05). The sensitivity and specificity of ANKC were 76.6% and 73.8%, respectively. The optimal throshold of ANKC was 0.10×10/L and AUC was 0.798(95% CI: 0.689-0.902)(P<0.01). The 3 year-PFS rate in patients with ANKC≥0.10×10/L was higher than that in patients with ANKC<0.10×10/L(68.2% vs 32.10%)(P<0.01). The 3 year-OS rate in patients with ANKC≥0.10×10/L was significantly higher than that in patients with ANKC<0.10×10/L (85.1% vs 43.8%)(P<0.01). Multivariate analysis showed that the independent predictors of PFS and OS in patients with MCL were ANKC and MIPI(P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The ANKC in peripheral blood has an important value for judging the prognosis of patients with MCL and can be used as an important index to judge the disease status of patients with MCL.</p>