Elevated serum free light chains are associated with inferior event free and overall survival in Hodgkin lymphoma.

The serum free light chain (FLC) assay quantitates free immunoglobulin kappa and lambda light chains, which has prognostic value in plasma cell dyscrasias. However, there is limited data on serum FLC in lymphoid malignancies. We analyzed the association of pretreatment FLC with event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) in 100 patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). Elevated polyclonal FLC were present in 30% of patients; these patients had an inferior EFS (HR = 4.84; 95% CI: 1.84-12.7) and OS (HR = 8.87; 95% CI: 2.35-33.52) compared to patients with normal FLC. Further studies of FLC in HL are warranted.