Expression profiling of T-cell lymphomas differentiates peripheral and lymphoblastic lymphomas and defines survival related genes.

PURPOSE T-Cell lymphomas constitute heterogeneous and aggressive tumors in which pathogenic alterations remain largely unknown. Expression profiling has demonstrated to be a useful tool for molecular classification of tumors. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Using DNA microarrays (CNIO-OncoChip) containing 6386 cancer-related genes, we established the expression profiling of T-cell lymphomas and compared them to normal lymphocytes and lymph nodes. RESULTS We found significant differences between the peripheral and lymphoblastic T-cell lymphomas, which include a deregulation of nuclear factor-kappaB signaling pathway. We also identify differentially expressed genes between peripheral T-cell lymphoma tumors and normal T lymphocytes or reactive lymph nodes, which could represent candidate tumor markers of these lymphomas. Additionally, a close relationship between genes associated to survival and those that differentiate among the stages of disease and responses to therapy was found. CONCLUSIONS Our results reflect the value of gene expression profiling to gain insight about the molecular alterations involved in the pathogenesis of T-cell lymphomas.