The addition of rituximab to CHOP therapy alters the prognostic significance of CD44 expression.

Expression of CD44 splice isoforms has been previously reported to correlate with inferior outcomes in DLBCL patients treated with CHOP therapy. However, it is unclear whether this observation remains valid in the R-CHOP era. In this study, we correlated CD44H and CD44v6 status with survival outcomes among DLBCL patients with an emphasis on the comparison between CHOP- and R-CHOP-treated subgroups. Our results suggest that rituximab has significantly decreased the prognostic value of CD44H. We also observed that the therapeutic benefit of rituximab is largely restricted to CD44H-positive cases in this cohort.