Rituximab, an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (mAb), is indicated in the treatment of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas, chronic lymphoid leukemia, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) has a unique immunophenotype derived from immunohistochemistry (positive for CD15, CD30, and Pax-5; negative for CD3, CD20 in most cases, and CD45).
Clonality detection rates in cHL improved as CD30-positive Reed-Sternberg (RS) cell density increased and CD20-positive B cell density decreased, although these correlations did not reach statistical significance.
Anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have become the mainstay in the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and have shown significant activity in patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody treatment has not only increased survival and cure rates in many non-Hodgkin lymphomas, but also has prompted an explosion in the development of novel antibodies and biologically active substances with specific cellular targets in the field of malignancies treatment.
Rituximab was approved initially by the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency for relapsed or refractory low-grade or follicular CD20+ B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas.
The recently identified lymphocyte-rich classical (lrc) HL is characterized by HRS cells with the immunophenotype of classical HRS cells (CD30(+)CD15(+)CD20(-)CD45(-)) but an infiltrate similar to lpHL and a clinical behavior resembling lpHL.
Determination of cyclin D1 and CD20 mRNA levels by real-time quantitative RT-PCR from archival tissue sections of mantle cell lymphoma and other non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.
Given that the FcgammaRIIIa receptor 158V allotype displays a higher affinity for human immunoglobulin G1 and increased antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, the aim of this study was to determine the influence of that FCGR3A polymorphism on the therapeutic response to rituximab, an anti-CD20 humanized immunoglobulin G1 increasingly used in the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphomas.
A lymph node biopsy showed the histological features of HD (mixed cellularity) with infiltrating CD8+ lymphocytes, and immunohistochemical examination revealed the following phenotype of Reed-Sternberg cells: LeuM1/CD15+, BerH2/CD30+, L26/PanB-, UCHL-1/CD45RO-, cyCD3-, CD4, CD8-, CD20-, CD79a-, EMA-, EBER-1+, LMP-1+.
The current case affords an opportunity to review the rarely reported expression of CD20 in T-cell neoplasms as well as the relationship between Hodgkin's disease and subsequently occurring non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.
In contrast, 96.9% of HD cases were negative for CD45, CD45-RO, CD43, and CD20.The four exceptions are discussed.All cases of HD were negative for EMA.
The results of this study provide support that a subset of HD represents a clonal B-cell neoplasm, and indicate that clonal IgH VDJ sequences are more frequently found in CD20+ HD.
Forty-nine H&RS cells (and 23 CD3+ or CD20+ lymphocytes as controls) from four patients with nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease (HD) and one patient each with lymphocyte predominant and mixed-cellularity HD were successfully analyzed by PCR.
This is in spite of the fact that RS cells expressing B-cell-associated antigen CD20 were detectable in 7/8 cases of LP HD and 6/24 cases of NS and MC HD with monoclonal antibody L26.
Distribution and phenotype of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-harboring cells were determined in Hodgkin's disease (HD) biopsies by in situ hybridization with [35S]-labeled RNA probes specific for the small EBV-encoded nuclear RNAs, EBER1 and EBER2, in some instances preceded by immunohistology for CD20, CD30, CD45RO, and CD68 antigens, the T-cell receptor beta-chain, and latent membrane antigen (LMP) of EBV.