Tumour-infiltrating gamma/delta T-lymphocytes are correlated with a brief disease-free interval in advanced ovarian serous carcinoma

Abstract

Further studies are required to better understand the role of gamma/delta T cells in ovarian carcinoma, yet these data underline the importance of host immune response to cancer and the need to better study immune mechanisms to modulate the therapeutic treatment of cancer.

Intraepithelial CD8-positive T lymphocytes predict survival for patients with serous stage III ovarian carcinomas: relevance of clonal selection of T lymphocytes

“…Similar to previous studies (Zhang et al, 2003;Curiel et al, 2004;Raspollini et al, 2005;Sato et )) and low (case #4, 5, 6 (right)) intraepithelial T-lymphocyte infiltration (magnification  100), with the IHC score given beside the photographs. Note that two cases exhibited rarified/clonal (case #1) and polyclonal (case #4) Tcell receptor g (TCRg) rearrangements (refer to Figure 4A).…”

“…This scenario has been proposed and experimentally supported in the case of HER2/neuexpressing tumour cells in breast carcinomas (Peoples et al, 1995;Wiech et al, 2008, Goodell et al, 2008. Evidence of such a mechanism for TILs in ovarian carcinoma is still sparse (Raspollini et al, 2005;Yang et al, 2007), especially as the rate of HER2/neuexpressing tumour cells varies from 1.9 to 35% (Press et al, 2005). Nevertheless, the identification of clonally restricted TILs represents an important basis for further exploitation and development of immune-based therapies (Sabbatini and Odunsi, 2007), also targeting Her2/neu (Disis et al, 2002).…”

“…In the case of ovarian cancer (Zhang et al, 2003;Curiel et al, 2004;Raspollini et al, 2005;Sato et al, 2005;Hamanishi et al, 2007;Tomsová et al, 2008;Clarke et al, 2009;Leffers et al, 2009), the presence of T-lymphocyte infiltration in ovarian carcinomas has a major impact on the progression and clinical follow-up of patients. In particular, it has been shown that high numbers of CD3-positive T cells are indicative of improved survival (Zhang et al, 2003;Raspollini et al, 2005;Tomsová et al, 2008) and that the CD8-positive (cytotoxic) subtype of CD3-positive T lymphocytes is responsible for this effect (Sato et al, 2005;Hamanishi et al, 2007;Clarke et al, 2009;Leffers et al, 2009).…”

“…In particular, it has been shown that high numbers of CD3-positive T cells are indicative of improved survival (Zhang et al, 2003;Raspollini et al, 2005;Tomsová et al, 2008) and that the CD8-positive (cytotoxic) subtype of CD3-positive T lymphocytes is responsible for this effect (Sato et al, 2005;Hamanishi et al, 2007;Clarke et al, 2009;Leffers et al, 2009). In contrast, the presence of the CD4-positive regulatory subtype of T lymphocytes (Treg; CD4 þ CD25 þ FoxP3 þ ) seems to reduce tumour-specific immunity and results in a poorer survival of patients with ovarian carcinomas (Curiel et al, 2004).…”

“…This allowed us to further examine and validate the prognostic value of stromal and intraepithelial TILs in clinically relevant sub-groups of ovarian carcinoma patients. Moreover, we analysed TCR chain rearrangements and Her2/neu expression to determine whether the generally accepted prognostic benefit of T lymphocytes in ovarian carcinomas (Zhang et al, 2003;Curiel et al, 2004;Raspollini et al, 2005;Sato et al, 2005;Hamanishi et al, 2007;Tomsová et al, 2008;Clarke et al, 2009;Leffers et al, 2009) is caused by a specific (re-)activation of individual clonally restricted TILs within the tumour parenchyma by HER2/neuexpressing tumour cells.…”