Prognostic Significance of BCL-2 and BCL-6 Expression in MYC-positive DLBCL

Retrospective analysis revealed that BCL-2+ and BCL-2+/MYC+ were prognostic factors indicative of poor outcomes. Patients with BCL-2+ and/or MYC+ expression had a poorer prognosis than that of patients with BCL-2− and/or MYC− expression. Patients with BCL-2+/MYC− expression showed a trend toward poorer survival than those with BCL-2−/MYC+ expression, suggesting that BCL-2 plays a more important role than MYC. Also, patients with BCL-6−/MYC+ expression had poorer progression-free survival than those with BCL-6+/MYC+ expression. In addition, patients with BCL-2+/MYC+/BCL-6− expression had the worst prognosis, suggesting that BCL-6− is a prognostic factor for poor outcomes for MYC+ DLBCL patients. Altogether, our findings have shown that BCL-2 is an independent prognostic factor and possibly plays a more important role than MYC in MYC+ DLBCL patients. Furthermore, we found that BCL-6− expression could also be a prognostic factor portending poor outcomes for MYC+ DLBCL patients.