Gene expression profiling of Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma

Splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) is a rare, indolent non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that affects 0.13 per 100,000 persons annually. Overall survival of SMZL is estimated to reach 8 to 11 years in most cases, but up to 30% of SMZL cases develop aggressive presentations resulting in greatly diminished time of survival. SMZL presents with a very heterogeneous molecular profile, making diagnosis problematic and accurate prognosis even less likely. The study herein has utilized this data to assist in identifying a potential diagnostic gene expression signature with highly specific predictive utility for further evaluation among control and SMZL patient samples. Delineation of a unique SMZL signature that could provide diagnostic utility for a malignancy that has historically been difficult to identify. These results should be further investigated and validated in subsequent molecular investigations of SMZL so it may be potentially incorporated into standard oncology practice for improving the understanding and outlook for SMZL patients. Affymetrix U133 plus 2.0 array profiling was performed according to the manufacturer's directions on RNA extracted from cryopreserved lymphoma tumor specimens