- 作者：Takeshi Hanagiri ; Yoshiki Shigematsu ; Shinji Shinohara ; Masaru Takenaka ; Sohich Oka ; Yasuhiro Chikaishi ; Yoshika Nagata ; Teruo Iwata ; Hidetaka Uramoto ; Tomoko So ; Fumihiro Tanaka
- 关键词：NSCLC ; Regulatory T cells ; Immune escape mechanism ; Regional lymph node lymphocytes ; Surgical resection ; Foxp3
- 刊名：Lung Cancer
- 出版年：2013
- 出版时间：September, 2013
- 年：2013
- 卷：81
- 期：3
- 页码：475-479
- 全文大小：786 K
Background
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are potent immunosuppressive cells that play a crucial role in tumor immune escape. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of the frequency of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs in the regional lymph node lymphocytes (RLNL) and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) in patients who underwent surgical resection of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods
The RLNL and PBL in 158 NSCLC patients who underwent complete surgical resection were collected at the time of surgery. The proportions of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ cells in the RLNL and PBL were determined by flow cytometry.
Results
The average proportions of Tregs in the RLNL and PBL were 1.28 % and 0.76 % , respectively. The proportion of Tregs in the RLNL was significantly higher than that in the PBL (p < 0.0001). The 5-year overall survival rates of the patients according to the proportion of Tregs in the RLNL were 84.4 % and 63.5 % in the lower and higher groups, respectively. A significant difference was observed in the survival rate between the higher and lower groups (p = 0.0056). Among the patients with stage I disease, the 5-year survival rate (91.4 % ) was significantly higher in patients with the lower proportion of Tregs in RLNL that in the higher group (72.1 % ) (p = 0.0147).
Conclusions
The higher proportion of Tregs in the RLNL was a significant unfavorable prognostic factor, even in patients with node-negative NSCLC. The information about the proportion of Tregs in the RLNL might improve the discriminatory power for assessing the risk of the recurrence of NSCLC.