05 was used throughout all statistical tests in the study.3. Results3.1. Patient Characteristics and Histological SubtypesThe clinical characteristics of the 79 patients are shown in Table 1. There were except 38 males and 41 females with a mean age of 55.2 (range 16�C82) years. Regarding immunohistochemistry, the B-cell phenotype was shown in 69 specimens (87.3%), and 10 tissue specimens (12.7%) expressed the T-cell phenotype.Table 1Initial characteristics of 79 patients with de novo NHL.3.2. Serum VEGF and bFGF at the Time of DiagnosisAt the time of diagnosis, the serum VEGF concentrations from the 79 patients ranged from 72.0 to 2919.4pg/mL with a mean of 668.0pg/dL, median of 516.0pg/mL, and the third quartile of 835.5pg/mL. The serum bFGF concentration ranged from undetectable to 2919.

4pg/mL with a mean of 12.15pg/dL, median of 9.85pg/mL, and third quartile of 17.60pg/mL. Associations between serum VEGF and bFGF and clinical features at diagnosis were analyzed using mean, median, and the third quartile of both angiogenetic factors as a cut-off value. No significant associations were found (data not shown). 3.3. Prediction of Response Rate by Serum VEGF and bFGFFrom a univariate analyses, the higher levels of serum VEGF and bFGF using the mean, median, and third quartile of both angiogenetic factors as cut-off values were not associated with a poorer complete remission (CR) rate. However, patients with B symptoms, bulky diseases, anemia, poorer performance status, high serum LDH, and T-cell immunophenotype had lower CR rates. Considering the chemotherapy regimens, CHOP and R-CHOP showed higher CR rates.

Multivariate analysis identified higher than the mean of serum VEGF, B symptoms, bulky diseases, anemia, and treatment with CHOP or R-CHOP as independent variables influencing CR rate (Table 2). Table 2Univariate and multivariate analysis for complete response and overall survival.3.4. Prediction of Survival Rate by Serum VEGF and bFGFThe median follow-up time was 15.1 (range 0.3�C55.2) months. In univariate survival analyses, there was no association between serum VEGF and OS (Figure 1(a)).Figure 1(a) Overall survival by mean VEGF (b) Overall survival by mean bFGF. However, there was a significant association between shorter OS and B symptoms, more extranodal involvements, poor performance status, anemia, high serum LDH, bFGF (Figure 1(b)), and IPI.

In contrast, the CHOP or R-CHOP regimens were predictors for better OS. From a Cox proportional hazards model, variables independently associated with OS were BM involvement, more extranodal involvement, poor performance status, anemia, and higher than the mean of serum bFGF as shown in Table 2.4. DiscussionIn this study, a high pretreatment Carfilzomib level of serum VEGF and bFGF were independently associated with poorer CR and OS rates, respectively.