CD163 is a predictive biomarker for prognosis of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma in Saudi patients

Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is a hematological malignancy characterized by a minority of neoplastic cells outnumbered by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). The overexpression of the CD163 antigen by TAMs is considered to be a significant predictive biomarker for risk stratification. This is likely caused by a genetic single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at the gene promoter. The aim of the present retrospective case-control study was to establish a gene expression profile of a specific biomarker for classical HL (CHL) in order to predict the outcome and survival of CHL patients in Saudi Arabia. The protein expression of CD163 on TAMs was studied using immunohistochemistry (IHC). A prognosis index was calculated for the CD163 protein to assess the risk stratification of CHL. Genotyping of selected SNPs of this antigen was performed for 100 CHL cases and controls. The analysis revealed that the CD163 protein expression level was significantly correlated with disease relapse (DR) and overall survival (OS). In addition, the CD163 index threshold (15.0) was found to be significantly correlated with the relapse rate. Among the studied CD163 SNPs, rs75608120 exhibited a significant correlation with the DR rate of CHL patients, but not with OS. The findings of the present study confirmed that CD163 is a specific marker for TAMs, and its overexpression by TAMs is significantly associated with relapse and reduced survival post-therapy. In addition, a new methodology of indexing CD163 protein expression for HL risk stratification was proposed. Thus, the present study identified a specific predictive molecular and antigenic biomarker for CHL prognosis.