Expression of cancer testis antigens in patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma and their clinical correlation

Abstract Objective To determine the frequency of expression of cancer testis antigens and their clinical correlation in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. Methodology of the study In this analytical, experimental and ambispective study, the MAGE A-3 and NY-ESO-1 antigen expression was correlated with clinical prognostic variables such as clinical stage, response to treatment, and relapse, in a total of 70 patients diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma at the Hodgkin's Lymphoma Clinic of the General Hospital of Mexico “Dr. Eduardo Liceaga”, from December 2000 to December 2015. Twenty-four patients were evaluated using RT-PCR, following extraction of RNA, to detect MAGE-A3 and NY-ESO1 expression. Cellular RNA was extracted from frozen tissue and controls using trizol (Life Technologies, Paisley, UK). 1 μg of RNA was used for cDNA synthesis by M-MLV reverse transcriptase (Life technologies, Paisley, UK). Results We studied 24 patients with a median age of 28 years, a minimum age of 16 years and a maximum age of 48 years, mostly male. 50% of patients presented complete response to the first line of treatment and 27% of patients presented relapse, 37.5% in relation to the expression of MAGE-A3. Expression of the NY-ESO-1 gene was not found in the study group. Twelve percent of patients died during the study, 8.33% of whom were also positive for MAGE-A3 ( p = 0.264.95% CI). No significant correlation was found between MAGE-A3 expression and major clinical prognostic variables. Conclusion Although the expression of MAGE-A3 in the study group was 37.5% (higher than reported in international studies), we found no correlation with the main clinical prognostics variables. Considering that the expression of MAGE-A3 in the cases studied does not confer prognostic value, making it impossible to use as a prognostic tool in peripheral blood, we are leaving the doors open to continue with this line of research, possibly increasing the number of patients as well as prolonging the follow-up time.