Pre-treatment circulating regulatory T cell count analysis of advanced cervical squamous cell ;carcinoma patients / 中国癌症杂志

ABSTRACT

Background and purpose:Due to the lack of cost-effective pre-treatment predictors for advanced cervical squamous cell carcinomas treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT), both baseline circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/- regulatory T cell (Treg) count and serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) level were measured for this feasibility study. Methods: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 44 patients with stageⅡB-ⅣA cervical squamous carcinomas before CCRT. Flow cytometry immunophenotyping and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used for circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count and serum SCC-Ag level testing,respectively. Clinical and pathological characteristics were retrospectively reviewed to analyze the predictive value of the 2 indexes. Results:The baseline circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count was lower in the patient group with positive treatment response than in the group with negative response [(8.78±2.80)%vs (10.95±2.56)%, P<0.05], and the serum SCC-Ag level showed no signiifcant difference between the 2 groups. No correlation was detected between these 2 markers (Spearman’rho=-0.093, P=0.540). Determined by plotting receiver operating characteristic curves, the best cut-off points were 9.76%for circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count and 9.50 ng/mL for serum SCC-Ag level, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that pretherapeutic circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count (OR=1.901, 95%CI1.112-3.219, P=0.017), but not serum SCC-Ag level (OR=0.998, 95%CI0.001-4.253, P=0.897), was predictive of clinical response to CCRT. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that pre-treatment CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count was an independent predictor for clinical response to CCRT (OR=3.115, 95%CI1.253-7.742, P=0.014). Conclusion:Pretherapeutic circulating CD4+CD25+CD127Low/-Treg count is a feasible method to predict clinical response to CCRT in patients with advanced cervical squamous cell carcinomas.