Gene expression profiles associated with early relapse during first remission induction in canine multicentric high-grade B-cell lymphoma

Multicentric high-grade B-cell lymphoma (mhBCL) is the most common subtype of canine lymphoma. Although chemotherapy by CHOP-based protocol induces remission in most cases, part of the cases develops early relapse during the first remission induction chemotherapy. In this study, we examined the gene expression profiles of canine mhBCL before chemotherapy and investigated their associations with early relapse during the first remission induction chemotherapy. Twenty-five mhBCL cases treated by CHOP-based protocol as first remission induction chemotherapy were included in this study. Sixteen cases completed the first chemotherapy without relapse (S-group), and nine developed relapse during the the chemotherapy (R-group). RNA-seq was performed and the gene expression profiles before the chemotherapy were compared between the S and R-groups. The mRNA expression levels of the extracted differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were compared between the S and R-groups by RT-qPCR.