Clinicopathological value of tumor-associated macrophages in adult classical Hodgkin lymphoma in Hawler city

Background and objective: The aims of the present research were to study the clinicopathological features of adult classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) in Hawler city and to evaluate the significance of immunohistochemical expression of CD68 positive tumor associated macrophage in the tumor microenvironment as a marker for prediction of malignant progression. Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study carried out in Rizgary Teaching Hospital and Nanakaly Hospital in Hawler city –Iraq in which 110cases of cHL patients were enrolled from January 2015 to July 2022.Clinical data were obtained from the hospital’s medical records. All specimens were revised for histopathological and immunohistochemical diagnosis of CD15 and CD30 followed by staining with CD68 using IHC. Results: The IHC showed 56.36% of cases expressed intermediate staining score for CD68 immune marker whereas 27.27% expressed high staining score. A positive association was found between staging of the cases and CD68 immune expressions. Conclusion: Positive CD68by immunohistochemical analysis on TAM have diagnostic significance, its overexpression may predict cancer progression. Keywords: CD68; Classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cHL); Tumor associated macrophage (TAM).