Diagnostic and prognostic value of CD160 antigen in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Objective To analyze the expression of CD160 antigen in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and to explore its clinical diagnostic value as well as the correlation of CD160 with genetic abnormalities. Methods A retrospective study was conducted from January 2015 to December 2017. Clinical data of 336 patients in the First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University (Jiangsu Province) were collected. Among them, 200 patients were diagnosed with CLL according to WHO Classification Tumors of Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues (the 4th edition of 2008), including 122 patients with typical CLL and 78 with atypical CLL based on Royal Marsden Hospital Immunomarker Integral System. Besides, there were 49 patients diagnosed with MCL and 87 patients with CD5-small B cell lymphoma (SBL). All patients′ tumor cells were detected for CD160 expression and its mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) by flow cytometry. At the same time, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to detect P53 deletion, 13q14 deletion, ATM deletion, 6q23 deletion,+12 and IGH rearrangement in CLL cases. Molecular characteristics and genetic abnormalities were compared between CD160+ and CD160-CLL patients. Results The CD160 positive rate in typical CLL patients and atypical CLL patients was 59.8% (73/122) and 64.1% (50/78), with MFI ranging from 14.9 to 173.9, and 29.6 to 193.7, respectively; while the CD160 positive rate in patients with CD5-SBL was 1.1% (1/87) and all the MCL patients were CD160 negative. The CD160 positive rate was significantly higher in typical and atypical CLL patients than that in MCL patients or patients with CD5-SBL (P<0.01). The rearrangement rate of IGH was significantly higher in CD160+ CLL patients than that in CD160-CLL patients (62.1% vs 31.6%, P<0.05). Conclusion CD160 has significant value for auxiliary diagnosis of CLL, especially can provide a reliable evidence for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis among atypical CLL, MCL, and SBL. Key words: Leukemia, lymphocytic, chronic, B-cell; Lymphoma, mantle-cell; Receptors, immunologic; Antigens, CD; GPI-linked proteins; Diagnosis, differential; Flow cytometry