Sánchez-Canteli Mario, Juesas Luis, Redin Esther, Calvo Alfonso, López Fernando, Astudillo Aurora, Montuenga Luis M, García-Pedrero Juana M, Rodrigo Juan P
Department of Otolaryngology, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias and Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Principado de Asturias (ISPA), 33011 Oviedo, Spain.
Instituto Universitario de Oncología del Principado de Asturias, University of Oviedo, 33003 Oviedo, Spain.
Cancers (Basel). 2021 Apr 25;13(9):2079. doi: 10.3390/cancers13092079.
Our goal was to assess the correlation of immune parameters with the response to induction chemotherapy (ICT) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients. Pretreatment biopsies from 64 patients with HNSCC that received ICT were assessed for PD-L1 protein expression and density of CD8+ and FOXP3+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). In addition, the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was calculated from pretreatment whole blood counts. In total, 55% of cases exhibited PD-L1 combined proportion score (CPS) positivity (≥1% stained cells). PD-L1 CPS positivity correlated with a high density of both CD8+ ( = 0.01) and FOXP3+ ( < 0.001) TILs. There was no correlation between PD-L1 expression or TIL density and NLR values. In univariate analyses, the absence of PD-L1 CPS expression ( = 0.042) and a high NLR ( = 0.034) were significantly correlated with response to ICT. Neither CD8+ TIL ( = 0.99) nor FOXP3+ TIL densities ( = 0.71) were associated with response to ICT. In multivariate analysis, only a high NLR was associated with response to ICT (HR = 4.06, 95% CI = 1.06-15.5, = 0.04). In addition, a high NLR was also independently associated with lower disease-specific ( = 0.03) and overall survival rates ( = 0.04), particularly in the subset of patients who received definitive surgical treatment. These results suggest that NLR could emerge as a predictive biomarker of response to ICT.
我们的目标是评估头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HNSCC）患者免疫参数与诱导化疗（ICT）反应之间的相关性。对64例接受ICT的HNSCC患者的治疗前活检组织进行评估，检测PD-L1蛋白表达以及CD8+和FOXP3+肿瘤浸润淋巴细胞（TIL）的密度。此外，根据治疗前全血细胞计数计算中性粒细胞与淋巴细胞比值（NLR）。总体而言，55%的病例表现为PD-L1联合阳性评分（CPS）阳性（≥1%的染色细胞）。PD-L1 CPS阳性与高密度的CD8+（P = 0.01）和FOXP3+（P < 0.001）TIL相关。PD-L1表达或TIL密度与NLR值之间无相关性。在单因素分析中，PD-L1 CPS表达缺失（P = 0.042）和高NLR（P = 0.034）与ICT反应显著相关。CD8+ TIL（P = 0.99）和FOXP3+ TIL密度（P = 0.71）均与ICT反应无关。在多因素分析中，仅高NLR与ICT反应相关（HR = 4.06，95%CI = 1.06 - 15.5，P = 0.04）。此外，高NLR还与较低的疾病特异性生存率（P = 0.03）和总生存率（P = 0.04）独立相关，特别是在接受确定性手术治疗的患者亚组中。这些结果表明，NLR可能成为ICT反应的预测生物标志物。
