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Comment in:
Prognostic factors and outcome of human herpesvirus 8-associated primary effusion lymphoma in patients with AIDS.

Boulanger E, Gérard L, Gabarre J, Molina JM, Rapp C, Abino JF, Cadranel J, Chevret S, Oksenhendler E.

Department of Clinical Immunology, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 1 Avenue Claude Vellefaux, 75 475 Paris cedex 10, France. emmanuelle.boulanger@sls.ap-hop-paris.fr

PURPOSE: Primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) is a rare high-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma associated with Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus/human herpesvirus 8 (KSHV/HHV-8) infection, and is mostly observed in the course of HIV infection. The prognosis is poor, with reported median survival time shorter than 6 months. To date, no prognostic factor has been identified in this subset of lymphoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We describe here a large series of HIV-infected patients with PEL, including 28 cases diagnosed in six centers during an 11-year time period. Prognosis analysis was performed using a Cox proportional hazard regression model. Statistically significant covariates were further analyzed in a forward, stepwise multivariate model. RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 3.8 years (range, 10 months to 10.8 years), nine patients (32%) were still alive, and eight of them remained progression free. The median survival was 6.2 months, and the 1-year overall survival rate was 39.3%. Fourteen patients (50%) achieved complete remission, with a 1-year disease-free survival rate at 78.6%. In a multivariate analysis, only a performance status more than 2 (hazard ratio, 5.84; 95% CI, 1.76 to 19.33) and the absence of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) before PEL diagnosis (hazard ratio, 3.26; 95% CI, 1.14 to 9.34) were found to be independent predictors for shorter survival. CONCLUSION: Based on a retrospective series of 28 patients, two prognostic factors were identified as being independently associated with impaired clinical outcome in HIV-related PEL--(1) a poor performance status and (2) the absence of HAART before PEL diagnosis.

Publication Types:
PMID: 15994147 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]