Background: Survivin, a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein family, has a dual role in tumor cell proliferative and antiapoptotic pathways. Survivin expression has been shown to be a negative prognostic factor in several cancers of humans, including B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Hypotheses: High survivin expression will be a negative prognostic factor in dogs with lymphoma (LSA) treated with chemotherapy. In addition, survivin expression will be upregulated in relapsed canine LSA when compared with patient-matched, pretreatment biopsies.
Animals: Thirty-one client-owned dogs with stage IIIa or IVa LSA.
Methods: Retrospective evaluation of survivin immunoreactivity was performed on pretreatment lymph node biopsies and patient-matched samples obtained from dogs at relapse after being treated with an abbreviated CHOP-based protocol.
Results: In this population of dogs presenting with stage IIIa or IVa B-cell LSA, those dogs that had high survivin immunoreactivity scores had a significantly (P < .01, hazard ratio = 0.30) shorter median disease-free interval than did dogs with low survivin immunoreactivity scores (171 days versus 321 days, respectively). Survivin immunoreactivity was not significantly different in relapsed canine LSA when compared with patient-matched, pretreatment biopsies.
Conclusions and clinical importance: Survivin expression is a negative prognostic factor that can predict early treatment failure of dogs that present with stage IIIa or IVa, B-cell LSA when treated with a CHOP-based protocol.