Immunohistochemical expression of mTOR in germinal center and nongerminal center group of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: a clinicopathological study.

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway regulates many major cellular processes and is implicated in an increasing number of neoplasms, including lymphoma. We correlated immunohistochemical expression of mTOR with germinal center and nongerminal center phenotype, B cell lymphoma-2 (bcl-2) and cellular homolog of the retroviral v-myconcogene (c-myc) expression, and International Prognostic Index (IPI) score in 31 patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Virtually all patients in our study with high mTOR scores had a germinal center phenotype. Furthermore within the germinal center subgroup, patients with high mTOR scores were associated with higher IPI scores (P < .001). Based on our results we propose that within the category of germinal center phenotype of DLBCL, mTOR expression might help identify a subset of patients with potentially more aggressive tumors who might benefit from use of targeted therapy using mTOR inhibitors.