Objective  This work aims to detect the expression and to identify the clinical significance of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in peripheral T-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS).

  Methods  Immunohistochemistry was used to detect CD68 and VEGF expressions in the tumor specimens of 60 cases with PTCL-NOS. A normal lymph node biopsy was used as the control sample.

  Results  The average content of the CD68-positive cells was 56.5± 18.6 per high-power field (HPF) in the PTCL-NOS tissues and 12.4±6.2 per HPF in the control sample (P < 0.01). The VEGF-positive rates for the PTCL-NOS tissues and the control sample were 78.3% and 26.7% (P < 0.05), respectively. TAMs were significantly correlated to bone marrow invasion, IPI score, and treatment response (P < 0.05). The two-year overall survival (OS) was 23.6% and 55.3% in the groups with high-TAM- and low-TAM-expression, respectively (P < 0.05). VEGF expression was closely correlated to tumor staging, bone marrow invasion, and IPI score (P < 0.05). The two-year OS was 22.9% and 83.3% in the VEGF-positive and VEGF-negative groups, respectively (P < 0.01). A univariate survival analysis revealed that the VEGF expression, TAMs content, rumor staging, IPI score, and treatment response were the prognostic factors of patients with PTCL-NOS (P < 0.05). A multivariate Cox regression model showed that VEGF and treatment response were both independent OS predictors (P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  TAMs and VEGF are overexpressed in PTCL-NOS. A univariate survival analysis reveals that TAMs and VEGF are both predictive factors for PTCL-NOS prognosis, and the multivariate survival analysis using Cox regression model data show that only VEGF is an independent predictive factor for OS.