[Clinical and immunological relevance of antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with lymphoma].

Objective: To explore the prevalence, clinical and prognostic significance of anticardiolipin (aCL) IgG/M/A antibodies and anti-β(2)-glycoprotein I (2-GPI) IgG/M/A antibodies in patients with lymphoma.

Methods: ACL IgG/M/A antibodies and anti-β(2)-GPI IgG/M/A antibodies were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 129 lymphoma patients, 46 SLE patients, 38 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, 24 primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) patients and 58 healthy controls. Laboratory and clinical features (thrombosis, event-free-survival time, etc.) were analyzed retrospectively from the clinical database.

Results: (1) Elevated APL level was found in 52/129 lymphoma patients (40.3%): aCL IgG/M/A antibodies in 11.6% (15/129) and anti-β(2)-GPI IgG/M/A antibodies in 32.6% (42/129) of lymphoma patients. There were significant differences between the prevalence and level of APL in lymphoma patients and healthy controls. But no difference was found between the lymphoma patients and SLE, RA or pSS patients. (2) APL was correlated with lymphoma derived from T or NK/T cells (P < 0.05). (3) No difference was found between the incidence of thrombosis in lymphoma patients with or without APL. (4) A strong negative correlation was found between the elevated APL and the event-free survival.

Conclusion: APL is elevated in 40.3% of lymphoma patients. And it is significantly higher than that in healthy controls and similar with that in SLE, RA or pSS patients. APL is correlated with lymphoma cell origin and shortened event-free survival.