Glucose is potentially a factor in the resistance to chemotherapy of B-cell lymphomas. In this study we investigated the expression of the glucose induced transcription factor Bcl-6 and the underlying mechanism by which it suppresses B-cell lymphoma cell death. Glucose was found to prevent etoposide-induced tumor cell death. BCL-6 expression was induced by glucose but down-regulated by etoposide. BCL-6 expression was regulated by the interaction of VDUP1 and p53. The molecular mechanism by which glucose prevented etoposide-induced tumor cell death was shown to involve the BCL-6 mediated caspase pathway. Our data suggest that glucose-induced BCL-6 overexpression could abrogate the etoposide chemotherapy effect on tumor cell death. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.