Objective: To investigate the expression of CC-chemokine receptor 7(CCR7) in patients with multiple myeloma(MM) and its correlation with clinical features of MM.
Methods: The level of CCR7 expression in bone marrow samples from 53 newly diagnosed MM patients was detected by flow cytometry(FCM). Statistical methods were used to analyze the correlation between CCR7 expression and clinical features, such as sex, age, M protein, peripheral blood cell count, biochemical indicators, plasma cell ratio of bone marrow, immunophenotype, osteopathy and extramedullary disease.
Results: The plasma cells in 24 out of 53 cases(45.28%) expressed CCR7. The rate of extramedullary disease in CCR7 positive group was significantly higher than that in CCR7 negative group (29.17% vs 3.45%)(P<0.05).
Conclusion: The expression of CCR7 in patients with MM is high, moreover this high expression correlates with extramedullary disease, thus CCR7 can be used as an effective indicator for prediction of extramedullary disease.