RBMX Protein Expression in T-Cell Lymphomas Predicts Chemotherapy Response and Prognosis.
T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (T-NHL) are a heterogeneous group of lymphomas with a mature T-cell phenotype. While in some hematological diseases the prognosis improved over the last decades, T-NHL cases often relapse early or present with an initially refractory course. Recently, it has been shown that RNA binding proteins have a crucial role for malignant tumor initiation, progression and treatment response while contributing to chemotherapy resistance. Therefore, we investigated the protein expression of the RNA binding protein X (RBMX), which has been shown to be of great relevance in disease initiation and progression in hematological diseases in 53 T-NHL cases using conventional immunohistochemistry. Low RBMX expression was associated with better response to anthracycline-containing first-line treatment. Furthermore, low RBMX expression predicted an improved overall survival and progression-free survival in univariate analysis. Multivariable Cox regression revealed RBMX as an independent prognostic marker for overall survival (p = 0.007; hazard ratio (HR) = 0.204; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.064-0.646) and progression-free survival (p = 0.006; HR = 0.235; 95% CI: 0.083-0.666). The study identifies low RBMX expression to predict better chemotherapy response, overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. These results suggest that RBMX protein expression levels might be a contributing factor towards chemotherapy resistance and thus affect prognosis. Hence, RBMX may be a potential therapeutic target and prognostic marker in T-cell lymphomas.
['Schümann|Franziska Lea|FL|', 'Bauer|Marcus|M|0000-0002-0657-6831', 'Groß|Elisabeth|E|0000-0002-1506-9559', 'Terziev|Denis|D|', 'Wienke|Andreas|A|0000-0001-5871-2586', 'Wickenhauser|Claudia|C|', 'Binder|Mascha|M|', 'Weber|Thomas|T|0000-0002-8724-9348']
RBMX immunohistochemistry PTCL T-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas drug resistance hnRNP G