Profiles of serum cytokines and their clinical implications in patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

To better predict the outcomes of patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), we measured the levels of various cytokines in serum samples from patients with PTCL and analyzed their clinical outcomes. We measured 34 cytokines in samples from 121 PTCL patients (55 PTCL-not otherwise specified (NOS), 44 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL), and 22 ALK- anaplastic large cell lymphoma) at diagnosis. Their impact on clinical outcomes, including overall survival and complete response rate, were analyzed with other clinical variables. The median age of patients was 58 years (range, 20-85 years) and 81 patients (66.9%) were male. The median overall survival among all patients was 56.1 months (95% CI 21.4-90.8) and median progression-free survival was 19.3 months (95% CI 12.3-26.3). Patients with AITL were more likely to express higher levels of serum cytokines, and 7 cytokines showed mean levels that were significantly higher than those in other subtypes. In this subgroup, IL-10 higher than 3.8 pg/mL was associated with adverse outcomes. In patients with ALK- anaplastic large cell lymphoma, 9 cytokines showed a prognostic impact, with higher levels of interferon γ, interleukin (IL)-8, IL-10, IL-17, IL-23, IP-10, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, macrophage inflammatory protein-1β, and RANTES negatively affecting clinical outcomes. In PTCL-NOS, patients with elevated levels of interferon γ, IL-7, and IL-23 showed poor outcomes. The current analysis demonstrated different cytokine profiles according to histologic subtype, which revealed the heterogeneity of PTCL. In addition, cytokine levels can be used as prognostic markers and may be useful for therapeutic applications in PTCL patients.