Prognostic impact of gene expression in lymphomas

Praktikum (Bachelor/Master)

Field: Genomics

Advisors:  Spang, Kohler

Courses Required: Practical Bioinformatics I

Objective: The expression levels of genes can hold prognostic information on the clinical outcome (survival) of lymphoma patients. Today Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphomas (DLBCL) are treated using the R-CHOP protocol, while some years ago the CHOP protocol was used. In this project we try to identify genes that indicate a good prognosis in R-CHOP treated patients and a poor prognosis in CHOP treated patients. This migh give additional insights into how the R-CHOP therapy works.

Data: We use the data set of Lentz et al (2008). It consists of gene expression profiles and clinical data of both CHOP and R-CHOP treated patients.

First-Steps:  

·       Become familiar with the lymphoma data set of Lenz e al. 2008

·       Become familiar with Cox regression models

·       Produce first gene list by comparing hazards

Questions: 

·       Are there any genes that switch from being an indicator of good prognosis to being an indicator of bad prognosis?

·       What kind of genes are these?

·       What can we learn about treatment mechanisms?

Start Reading:

Lenz et al. Stromal gene signatures in large-B-cell lymphomas. (2008) NEJM