The anti-apoptotic protein survivin is overexpressed in patients with primary brain lymphoma

Background: Survivin is a novel secreted inhibitor of apoptosis protein. It is overexpressed in various human cancers, but is undetectable in healthy differentiated tissues. To investigate the role of anti-apoptosis-related gene expression, the survivin protein was studied in subjects with primary brain lymphoma. Methods: The medical records of 18 patients with primary brain lymphoma (PBL) were analyzed. Survivin expression in tumor cells was determined using an immunohistochemical assay using mouse monoclonal antibodies to survivin. Cell phenotype classifications were evaluated using CD79a, CD20, CD3, and CD45RO biomarkers in paraffin-embedded specimens. Results: The results of the immunohistochemical assay showed that 14 of the 18 (78%) individuals with PBL had overexpression of survivin in virtually all tumor cells. These 18 immunocompetent individuals had positive immunoreactivity for CD79a, CD20, which revealed the characteristics of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the brain. Conclusions: Our preliminary findings suggest that the apoptotic inhibitor, survivin, may be an important biomarker in the development, pathogenesis and tumorigenesis of primary brain lymphoma, and may also be a candidate target molecule for therapeutic intervention. Further investigations with a larger sample size are recommended.