Background and Aim. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) contribute to the process of malignant transformation and tumor progression through immuno- and nonimmunosuppressive mechanisms. The current study is aimed at providing the predictive and prognostic role of Mo-MDSCs in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in relation to different hematologic indices. Methods. We recruited 40 cases of advanced NSCLC, stages III and IV,
aged
>
18
–
<
70
years old, and eligible to receive chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy, along with 20 healthy controls of comparable age and sex; after diagnosis and staging of patients, blood samples were collected for flow cytometric detection of Mo-MDSCs. Results. Significant accumulation of Mo-MDSCs in patients compared to their controls (
p
<
0.0001
). Furthermore, these cells accumulated significantly in stage IV compared to stage III (
p
=
0.006
) and correlated negatively with overall survival (
r
=
−
0.471
,
p
=
0.002
), lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (
r
=
−
0.446
,
p
=
0.004
), and mean platelet volume to platelet count ratio (MPV/PC) (
r
=
−
0.464
,
p
=
0.003
), patients with
Mo
‐
MDSCs
<
13
%
had significantly better survival than those with
Mo
‐
MDSCs
≥
13
%
(
p
=
0.041
). Conclusion. Mo-MDSCs represent one of the key mechanisms in the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) to play major roles not only in the carcinogenesis of lung cancer but also in disease progression and prognosis and, in addition, predict the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors; our results provided some support to target Mo-MDSCs and needed to be augmented by further studies.
Background and aim
Growing evidence highlighted the primary role of the immune system in the disease course of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The study aim was to investigate the expression of PD-1 and CD39 on CD4+ and CD8+ cells infiltrating tumor tissue compared to their counterparts in peripheral blood and explore its association with tumor characteristics, disease progression, and prognosis in females with TNBC.
Patients and methods
The study included 30 TNBC patients and 20 healthy controls. Cancer and normal breast tissue and peripheral blood samples were collected for evaluation of the expression of PD-1 and CD39 on CD4+ and CD8+T cells by flow cytometry.
Results
A marked reduction in the percentage of CD8+ T lymphocytes and a significant increase in the frequencies of CD4+ T lymphocytes and CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes expressing PD1 and CD39 were evident in tumor tissue in comparison with the normal breast tissue. The DFS was inversely related to the cancer tissue PD1+CD8+ and CD39+CD8+ T lymphocytes. Almost all studied cells were significantly increased in the tumor tissue than in peripheral blood. Positive correlations were detected among peripheral PD1+CD4+T lymphocytes and each of cancer tissue PD1+CD4+, PD1+CD8+and CD39+CD8+T cells, and among peripheral and cancer tissue CD39+CD4+and CD39+CD8+ T cells.
Conclusions
The CD39 and PD1 inhibitory pathways are synergistically utilized by TNBC cells to evade host immune response causing poor survival. Hence, combinational immunotherapy blocking these pathways might be a promising treatment strategy in this type of cancer.
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