We show that high serum TK1 levels predict poorer overall survival and correlate with unmutated immunoglobulin variable region genes, CD38 and ZAP-70 expression, and subsequent risk of developing large B-cell lymphoma (Richter syndrome).
To test our hypothesis, we analyzed the CLL ZAP-70 status as a surrogate for the V(H) mutational status in four patients with subsequent Hodgkin's disease variants of Richter's syndrome.