Prognostic Significance of CD4⁺and CD8⁺T Cell Infiltration Within Cancer Cell Nests in Vulvar Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

These data support the statement that CD4⁻ and CD8+ T cells cooperate within cancer cell nests, but this spontaneous immune reaction is an individual feature not influencing the prognosis. Intratumoral CD4+ T cells might control or reflect the immune responses against cancer cells, whereas CD8+ T cells do not seem to work as sufficient effectors in tumor tissues.

Status of cellular immunity lacks prognostic significance in vulvar squamous carcinoma

“…In this cohort of 286 vulvar carcinoma patients, intra-tumoral CD8 + and Foxp3 + T-lymphocytes were present in 96.3% and 95.1% of the cases. In agreement with results of a recently published study in vulvar carcinoma [23], we did not find an association between the number of T-lymphocytes and survival of vulvar carcinoma patients. This result is in contrast with studies previously performed in endometrial [9,11], ovarian [10,30] and cervical carcinoma [31].…”

“…In vulvar carcinoma, evidence for the (prognostic) role of the immune system in vulvar carcinoma is scarce [23,24] and research is warranted on this subject. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prognostic role of several aspects of the immune system in vulvar carcinoma patients.…”

Local immune response depends on p16INK4a status of primary tumor in vulvar squamous cell carcinoma

“…Lack of prognostic significance of adaptive immune effectors and regulatory T cells described by others [31] was previously confirmed by our group for nearly the same cohort [19, 20]. All these findings have suggested no place for immunotherapy for vulvar cancer patients.…”

“…Data on TILs in remaining 76 vSCCs were retrieved from our previous studies [19, 20, 21]. Data on p16 INK4a and (hr) HPV status were retrieved from our recent study [8].…”

Interleukin-22 and Cyclosporine in Aggressive Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…13–17 Gene expression profiling has shown that T-cell activity is decreased in SCC, as shown by downregulation of activation maker CD69 and impaired secretion of granzyme B and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). 10 In addition, myeloid-derived suppressor cells are present in SCC and function to impair T cell–mediated immunity by secreting nitric oxide in the tumor microenvironment.…”