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