Phenotype and distribution of infiltrating lymphocytes in liver cancer tissues / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Objective:To identify the signature of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) subtypes that may affect cytokine expres-sion between different outcomes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients by analyzing the CD molecular expression profiles of non-cancerous hepatic tissues. Methods:Surface markers of TIL in noncancerous hepatic tissues from 146 HCC patients were determined by using immunohistochemical method and flow cytometry. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models and Kaplan-Meier method were used to analyze the association of their expression levels with tumor recurrence and survival. Results:More than 86.4%of TILs in patients were quiescent, as measured via CD4+or Foxp3 expression. Meanwhile, more than 90%of CD3+T cells ex-pressed CD8+. The proportion of T cells was low compared with CD8+T cells. The proportion of CD19 and CD20 in distant nontumor tissues almost was zero. The proportion of T cell subgroups isolated from HCC circulating whole blood did not show a significant shift compared with the normal control, as followsCD4+T/CD8+T=1.167 ± 1.04, CD8+T/CD3+T=0.288 ± 0.116, and CD4+T/CD3+T=0.429 ± 0.178. The proportion of CD8+T cells in noncancerous hepatic tissues was higher than that in blood (P<0.001).Conclusion:TILs in HCC noncancerous hepatic tissues are increased and contain a subpopulation of CD3+CD8+T cells. CD8+T cells in cancerous tissues, rather than noncancerous tissues, show significant differences between different prognostic groups.