The purpose was to examine the prognostic impact of features of tumor cells and immune microenvironment in patients with follicular lymphoma treated with and without anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody therapy.

Tissue microarrays were constructed from archived tissue obtained from patients on three sequential Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) trials for FL. All three trials included anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies were included for patients in the latter two trials. Immunohistochemistry was used to study the number and distribution of cells staining for forkhead box protein P3 (FOXP3) and lymphoma-associated macrophages (LAMs) and the number of lymphoma cells staining for myeloma-associated antigen-1 (MUM-1). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the association between marker expression and overall survival (OS).

The number or pattern of infiltrating FOXP3 cells and LAMs did not correlate with OS in sequential SWOG studies for FL. The presence of MUM-1 correlated with lower OS for patients who received monoclonal antibody but not for those treated with chemotherapy alone.

Immune cell composition of lymph nodes did not correlate with OS in this analysis of trials in FL. The mechanism of the observed correlation between MUM-1 expression and adverse prognosis in patients receiving monoclonal antibody therapy requires confirmation.