Characteristics of the included studies
| Authors | Year | Country | Study design | Patients (n) | Age, mean (range) (years) | Gender (male) (%) | DLBCL histological subtype (n) | DLBCL molecular subtype | DLBCL stage | IPI score (n) | Follow-up, median (range) (months) | Cut-off points (cells/mm2, %, score) | Adjusted factors (OS/PFS/EFS/DSS) | NOS score | ||
| GCB (n) | Non-GCB (n) | I–II (n) | III–IV (n) | |||||||||||||
| Lee et al8 | 2008 | Korea | Retrospective | 96 | 58.0 (20–83) | 64.6 | Primary DLBCL (96) | 25 | 42 | 48 | 48 | 0–1 (40), 2 (18), 3 (23), 4–5 (15) | 16.0 (1.0–132.0) | 2.3% | – | 6 |
| Tzankov et al28 | 2008 | Switzerland | Retrospective | 270 | 63.0 | 54.4 | Primary DLBCL (270) | 81 | 98 | 78 | 83 | 0–2 (97), 3–5 (55) | – | 4.4 or 6.1 cells/mm2 | – | 5 |
| Xu et al27 | 2013 | China | Retrospective | 92 | 62.0 (23–84) | 62.0 | – | – | – | 42 | 50 | 0–2 (66), 3–4 (26) | 0.0–80.0 | 3 (score) | – | 6 |
| Ahearne et al26 | 2014 | UK | Prospective | 70 | 67.0 (30–88) | 58.6 | – | – | – | 44 | 26 | 0–1 (46), 2–4 (24) | – | – | – | 8 |
| Gomez-Gelvez et al10 | 2016 | USA | Retrospective | 74 | 59.1 (21–91) | 54.1 | DLBCL-NOS (74) | – | – | – | – | – | 49.2 (7.2–144.0) | 17.0% | Stage, LDH, type of DLBCL (ABC vs GCB), CD68, MVD | 7 |
| Wu et al25 | 2016 | China | Retrospective | 112 | 61.0 (22–81) | 59.8 | – | – | – | 52 | 60 | 0–2 (76), 3–4 (36) | 56.6 (4.0–70.0) | 4 (score) | Gender, age, stage, pretreatment LDH, extranodal sites, IPI score, B7-H4 expression | 7 |
| Lee et al24 | 2017 | Korea | Retrospective | 100 | 61.0 (15–86) | 63.0 | – | 30 | 70 | 55 | 45 | 0–1 (47), 2 (14), 3 (22), 4–5 (17) | 54.0 (0.0–84.0) | 4 (score) | – | 5 |
| Nakayama et al23 | 2017 | Japan | Retrospective | 82 | 68.3 | 58.5 | DLBCL-NOS (82) | 25 | 57 | 34 | 48 | 0–1 (23), 2 (22), 3 (31), 4–5 (6) | 0.0–133.3 | 40.0 cells/mm2 | – | 7 |
| Nam et al11 | 2018 | Korea | Retrospective | 114 | 58.7 (10–82) | 62.3 | Primary DLBCL of the central nervous system (114) | 14 | 78 | – | – | 0–2 (64), 3–5 (50) | 31.4 (0.2–178.0) | 24.0 cells/mm2 | – | 5 |
| Zhao et al12 | 2020 | China | Retrospective | 208 | 60.0 (34–78) | 59.6 | – | 110 | 95 | – | – | – | 0.0–91.0 | 3 (score) | – | 5 |
| Chang et al29 | 2021 | China | Retrospective | 70 | 59.5 (30–86) | 50.0 | DLBCL EBV-associated (7) | 26 | 28 | 41 | 29 | 0–2 (37), 3–5 (27) | 0.5–87.0 | 16.0 cells/mm2 | – | 5 |
| Autio et al30 | 2021 | Finland | Cohort | 51 | 54.0 (22–64) | 67.0 | Primary DLBCL (no primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma) (51) | 24 | 17 | 5 | 46 | 0–2 (10), 3–5 (41) | 61 | – | – | 6 |
| Carreras et al15 | 2022 | Japan | Retrospective | 132 | 69.0 (14–97) | 60.6 | DLBCL EBV-associated (10) | 47 | 82 | 72 | 50 | 0–2 (73), 3–5 (33) | – | 4.5% | CD68, CD16, MITF, CD163, PTX3, IL-10, IPI, cell-of-origin (Hans classifier), EBER and high-grade B-cell lymphoma genotype | 7 |
| Xu et al31 | 2021 | China | Cohort | 30 | 61.5 (26–89) | 66.7 | A-DLBCL (30) | 5 | 25 | 4 | 21 | 0–2 (9), 3–5 (16) | – | – | – | 6 |
–, no data; ABC, activated B-cell-like; A-DLBCL, anaplastic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; DLBCL, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; DLBCL EBV, DLBCL Epstein-Barr virus-associated; DLBCL-NOS, DLBCL not otherwise specified; DSS, disease-specific survival; EBER, Epstein-Barr virus-encoded small RNA; EFS, event-free survival; GCB, germinal centre B-cell-like; IL-10, interleukin 10; IPI, International Prognostic Index; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; MITF, microphthalmia transcription factor; MVD, microvasculature density; NOS, Newcastle-Ottawa Scale; OS, overall survival; PFS, progression-free survival; PTX3, pentraxin 3.