High expression of Dicer reveals a negative prognostic influence in certain subtypes of primary cutaneous T cell lymphomas.

BACKGROUND: Aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been implicated in oncogenesis of various tumors and primary cutaneous T cell lymphomas. Dicer, a ribonuclease III-like enzyme is essential for miRNA processing.

OBJECTIVE: We initiated a retrospective study to characterize the alterations in the expression profile of Dicer in patients with primary cutaneous T cell lymphomas (CTCL).

METHODS: A total of 50 consecutive patients with primary CTCL were studied, with the majority having mycosis fungoides (n=34). Five patients had primary cutaneous CD 30+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma, four patients each had lymphomatoid papulosis and primary cutaneous CD4-positive small/medium T-cell lymphoma, one primary cutaneous γδ T cell lymphoma, one Sézary syndrome and another subcutaneous panniculitis-like T cell lymphoma of αβ-phenotype. Immunohistochemistry was performed on paraffin sections using a commercially available antibody against Dicer. Intensity of expression was correlated with clinical parameters including disease specific survival (DSS) and time to progression (TTP).

RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 74 months (range: 1-271), 12/50 patients (24%) have died. Univariate and multivariate analysis for disease-specific survival showed Dicer expression and stage as a negative predictive factor in the sole group of MF patients (n=34) as well as in the heterogeneous group of patients (n=50), but not gender, histological subtype, primary localization of disease, age and recurrence of lymphoma (p>0.05).

CONCLUSION: Our data suggest Dicer expression as a possible molecular marker in patients with MF and apparently indicate that miRNA(s) might be of clinical relevance in CTCL.