CD163 as a Novel Predictive Biomarker for Classical Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in patient from Saudi Arabia

The overexpression of the CD163 antigen by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in the Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is considered to be a significant predictive biomarker for risk stratification. This is most likely due to a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at the gene promoter. The goal of this retrospective case control study was to create a gene expression profile of a specific biomarker to predict the outcome and survival of patients with classical HL (CHL) in Saudi Arabia. The protein expression of CD163 was investigated using immunohistochemistry (IHC). To assess risk stratification, a prognosis index was calculated for the CD163 protein. This antigen's selected SNPs were genotyped in 100 CHL cases and controls. The analysis revealed that the CD163 protein expression level was significantly correlated with disease relapse (DR) and overall survival (OS), (P <0.001). In addition, the CD163 index threshold (15.0) was found to be significantly correlated with the relapse rate (P= 0.022). CD163 promotor SNP (rs75608120) exhibited a significant correlation with the DR (P=0.032) but not with OS. We concluded that CD163 is a specific biomarker and its overexpression by TAMs is significantly associated with DR and reduced OS.