Impact of Perforin 1 A91V germline background in patients with aggressive B-NHL treated with R-CHOP. (PubMed, Blood Adv)
This study aimed to determine whether genetic variants in key effector molecules influence treatment outcomes in aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL).We genotyped variants of PRF A91V (rs35947132), GZMB Q48R (rs8192917), and FASL (rs5030772 and rs763110) in 501 patients from the RICOVER-60 trial (NCT0052936/EU-20243), which compared 6 versus 8 cycles of chemotherapy containing cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) with or without rituximab in elderly patients with untreated aggressive B-NHL. Carriers showed significantly better outcomes with CHOP alone but no additional benefit from rituximab. These findings were validated in independent cohorts of aggressive B-NHL but not in CLL, where the PRF1 A91V variant was overrepresented (119/589; 20%) compared to aggressive B-NHL and general population.Our results suggest that PRF A91V is a negative predictive marker for rituximab-mediated cellular cytotoxicity in aggressive B-NHL and may have broader implications for immune effector cell-based therapies.