The prognostic significance of CA 125 in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of serum CA 125 in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with prognostic parameters of the disease, response to treatment, and survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-eight patients [38 males, median age 56 (range 17-82) yr] with NHL were evaluated. CA 125 was measured by an enzyme immunoradiometric assay at diagnosis and at the end of first-line treatment. RESULTS: Median overall CA 125 was 49 (1-963) U mL-1, whereas 49 patients had initially abnormal (>35 U mL) CA 125 levels. High CA 125 was found to correlate with failure of treatment (P = 0.001) and relapse (P = 0.01), and to be independently associated with bulky disease, effusions, LDH, and the International Prognostic Index (IPI) score (P<0.01 for each of these four variables). An initially abnormal CA 125 value was associated with poorer 5-yr survival [median survival of patients with CA 125>35 U mL-1 33 (18-72) months compared to 58 (20-77) months for those with CA 125 = 35 U mL-1, P = 0.012]. Moreover, CA 125>35 U mL-1 (among stage III/IV and LDH>460 mU mL-1) emerged as an independent predictor of death within 5 yr from diagnosis (Relative Risk (RR) 3.1, 95% CI 1.5-12.8, P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Measurement of serum CA 125 is useful for staging, monitoring, and estimating prognosis in patients with NHL.

High pretreatment interleukin-10 is an independent predictor of poor failure-free survival in patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of pretreatment serum IL-10 (sIL-10) levels with known prognostic factors and with failure-free survival (FFS) in patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Interleukin-10 (IL-10) levels were measured in the sera of 36 untreated patients with HL and were subsequently correlated with clinical and laboratory prognostic parameters as well as with FFS. RESULTS: 36 untreated HL patients (21 men, median age 31 (18-62) years) were studied. Of the subjects, 19 (52.7%) had elevated IL-10 levels (> or = 10 pg/ml). High IL-10 correlated with bulky disease, high serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and leukocytosis (P = 0.015 for all three variables). High IL-10 (P = 0.015) and low serum albumin (P = 0.001) were associated with worse FFS, but only high IL-10 emerged as an independent predictor of inferior FFS in multivariate analysis (P = 0.04, hazard ratio 2.21, 95% CI 1.12-14.67). Median FFS of IL-10-positive patients (30 (12-47) months) was significantly shorter compared to that of IL-10-negative ones (39 (12-58) months, log-rank test P = 0.0185). CONCLUSIONS: IL-10 was found to be elevated in approximately half of untreated patients with HL, to correlate with bulky disease, high LDH and leukocytosis and to be an independent predictor of FFS.