Biomarkers in Patients With Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Treated With Combination Chemotherapy With or Without Rituximab

Gene Expression Profiling Using Paraffin-embedded Tissues and the Nuclease Protection Assay in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) Treated With CHOP or R-CHOP: An ECOG and SWOG Correlative Study of E4494

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tissue from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors identify and learn more about biomarkers related to cancer. It may also help doctors predict how well patients will respond to treatment.

PURPOSE: This research study is studying biomarkers in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with combination chemotherapy with or without rituximab.

OBJECTIVES:

• To identify genes predictive of clinical outcome (failure-free survival and overall survival) among patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with CHOP or R-CHOP induction on ECOG-E4494 using the nuclease protection assay for measuring gene expression in paraffin-embedded tissue.
• To identify genes that change their prognostic profile with the addition of rituximab to CHOP chemotherapy.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Unstained formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples are analyzed for gene expression via nuclease protection assay.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
• Treated with CHOP or R-CHOP on ECOG-E4494

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Not specified

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics