Stage-resolved cytokine profiling nominates IL-17 as a prognostic node in relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoma.

Authors

Xinlu Jiang, Xiaoyu Wang, Li Yan, Fengli Li, Jinli Zhu, Huiping Wang, Zhimin Zhai

Published in

Cytokine. Volume 207. Pages 157205. Aug 22, 2026. Epub Aug 22, 2026.

Abstract

B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) are highly heterogeneous malignancies. While immunochemotherapy and CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy has revolutionized the treatment of newly diagnosed (ND) and relapsed or refractory (R/R) disease, clinical outcomes remain inconsistent. This study aims to evaluate a baseline levels of 12-cytokine panel across the ND, R/R, and CAR-T cohorts to identify robust biomarkers predictive of treatment response and long-term prognosis.
We enrolled 120 patients (ND B-NHL: n = 42; R/R B-NHL: n = 52; ND B-ALL: n = 10; R/R B-ALL: n = 21) and a separate cohort of 23 patients receiving CD19 CAR-T therapy. Plasma levels of 12 cytokines were quantified and analyzed using ROC curves, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and regression analyses to determine independent prognostic factors.
Baseline cytokine profiling revealed that IL-17 was one of the four markers exhibiting significant inter-group differences (P = 0.034). In the R/R B-NHL cohort, high baseline IL-17 was significantly associated with inferior OS (log-rank P < 0.0001) and shorter progression-free survival (PFS) (P = 0.003). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression confirmed IL-17 as a significant risk factor for poor OS (HR = 1.802, P < 0.001) and PFS (HR = 1.279, P = 0.048) in R/R B-NHL. In CAR-T cohort, IL-17 levels also provided substantial discrimination for PFS (AUC 0.725).
Our findings indicate that IL-17 may be a potential biomarker with stage-specific clinical associations in B-NHL. Its relevance may vary across disease stages, but overall, it warrants further investigation for risk stratification and individualized treatment monitoring.

PMID:
42632195
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 23 Aug 2026.

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