Survivin is an inhibitor of apoptosis whose expression may be associated with inferior outcome in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated without rituximab.Caspase-3 is the final caspase of the apoptotic cascade and its pattern of expression may also be related to patients' outcome. In this study we investigated immunohistochemical expression of survivin and caspase-3 (CPP32) in 57 patients with DLBCL treated with rituximab and CHOP (R-CHOP). According to previously published criteria, we separately analyzed correlation of different types of survivin expression with patients' outcome. Nuclear survivin was expressed in only 26% of cases, cytoplasmic survivin was expressed in 81% of cases while application of immunoreactivity scoring system yielded 58% of survivin positive cases. Caspase-3 was expressed in 77% of cases. There were no significant correlations between any type of survivin expression and response to treatment or survival of the patients.The expression of caspase-3 was also not associated with patients' outcome. We conclude that survivin and caspase-3 have no significant prognostic significance in patients with DLBCL treated with R-CHOP.

A 54-year-old male patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia was referred to the Department of Oral Medicine. He had a primary refractory disease and was treated according to HOVON71 and HAM protocol. Sixteen days after the start of the HAM protocol the patient developed palatal dark red/brownish lesion and maxillary vestibular exophytic lesion. Biopsy specimens from oral lesions were taken and microbiologic evaluation confirmed the presence of Aspergillus fumigatus and Rhizopus genus. The treatment of the patient consisted of the inferior maxillectomy and intravenous posaconazole and amphotericine B for the following 28 days. Since the coinfection with Aspergillus and Rhizopus is extremely rarely seen in the oral cavity, a diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma easily presents itself.

Data on outcome of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and COVID-19 infection are limited. The European MCL (EMCL) registry is a centralized registry of the EMCL network, collecting real-world information about treatments and disease courses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, additional data on MCL patients with COVID-19 infection were collected, aiming to identify risk factors for mortality from COVID-19. In our retrospective, multicenter, international study, we collected data from 63 MCL patients with a median age of 64 years (range, 44–84) in 9 countries with evidence of a COVID-19 infection between February 2020 and October 2021. The overall mortality rate was high (44.4%), especially in hospitalized patients (61%) and in patients with need for intensive care unit care (94%). Patients receiving rituximab had significantly poorer survival than patients not receiving rituximab (P = 0.04). Our data highlight the importance of prevention strategies and underline the need for effective vaccination in this vulnerable cohort.

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