OBJECTIVETo explore the value of BCL-2 protein for evaluating the prognosis of patients with diffuse large B cell lymphama (DLBCL).

METHODSThe clinical data of 128 patients with DLBCL including clinical features, BCL-2 protein expression, therapeutic outcome and so on were analyzed retrospectively in departenent of hematology, Chinese PLA general hospital from January 2008 to December 2010, and the prognosis of DLBCL patients with different expression levels of BCL-2 protein was compared, including overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates.

RESULTSThe BCL-2 expression postive was found in 83 cases (64.8%), while BCL-2 expression negative was observed in 45 cases (35.2%). The OS rates in BCL-2 expression positive and negative groups were 76.6% vs 76.8% in 3 years (P >0.05), and the PFS rates in BCL-2 expression positive and negative groups were 57.1% vs 70.5% (P >0.05) in 3 years, suggesting that BCL-2 expression level had no significant impact on OS and PFS rates in all DLBCL patients. However, among the older patients aged ≥ 60 years, there was singnificant different of 3 year OS rates in BCL-2 expression positive and negative groups (66.7% vs 76.4%, P >0.05), while 3-year PFS rate in BCL-2 expression positive group was obviosusly lower than that in BCL-2 expression negative group (35.8% vs 83.3%, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe positive expression of BCL-2 protein is a poor prognostic factor for older patients aged ≥ 60 years, thus this indicator possesses the prognostic value for these patients with DLBCL.