Kalavska Katarina, Sestakova Zuzana, Mlcakova Andrea, Gronesova Paulina, Miskovska Viera, Rejlekova Katarina, Svetlovska Daniela, Sycova-Mila Zuzana, Obertova Jana, Palacka Patrik, Mardiak Jozef, Chovanec Miroslav, Chovanec Michal, Mego Michal
Translational Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, National Cancer Institute, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Department of Molecular Oncology, Cancer Research Institute, Biomedical Research Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Front Oncol. 2022 Mar 11;12:858797. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.858797. eCollection 2022.
The pattern of immune cell distribution in testicular germ cell tumors (GCT) significantly differs from the immune environment in normal testicular tissues. The present study aimed to evaluate the role of different leukocyte subpopulation in GCTs. A cohort of 84 chemotherapy-naïve GCT patients was analyzed. Immunophenotyping of peripheral blood leukocyte subpopulations was carried out by flow cytometry. In addition, the data assessing the immunophenotypes and the baseline clinicopathological characteristics of the included subjects were statistically evaluated. Their prognostic value for the assessment of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was estimated. The percentage of different innate/adaptive immune cell subpopulations was significantly associated with poor risk-related clinical features, including the number of metastatic sites, presence of retroperitoneal, mediastinal, lung, brain and non-pulmonary visceral metastases as well as with the S-stage and International Germ Cell Consensus Classification Group (IGCCCG) risk groups. In univariate analysis, the percentages of neutrophils, eosinophils, dendritic cells type 2, lymphocytes and T cytotoxic cells were significantly associated with PFS, while the neutrophil, non-classical monocyte and lymphocyte percentage were associated with OS. However, all these outcome correlations were not independent of IGCCCG in multivariate analysis. The data indicated a link among different innate/adaptive peripheral immune cell subpopulations in GCT patients. In addition, the association between these subpopulations and tumor characteristics was also investigated. The findings of the present study may contribute to a deeper understanding of the interactions between cancer and innate/adaptive immune response in GCT patients.
睾丸生殖细胞肿瘤（GCT）中免疫细胞的分布模式与正常睾丸组织中的免疫环境显著不同。本研究旨在评估不同白细胞亚群在GCT中的作用。对84例未经化疗的GCT患者进行了队列分析。通过流式细胞术对外周血白细胞亚群进行免疫表型分析。此外，对评估纳入受试者免疫表型和基线临床病理特征的数据进行了统计学评估。估计了它们对无进展生存期（PFS）和总生存期（OS）评估的预后价值。不同先天性/适应性免疫细胞亚群的百分比与不良风险相关临床特征显著相关，包括转移部位数量、腹膜后、纵隔、肺、脑和非肺内脏转移的存在，以及S分期和国际生殖细胞共识分类组（IGCCCG）风险组。在单变量分析中，中性粒细胞、嗜酸性粒细胞、2型树突状细胞、淋巴细胞和细胞毒性T细胞的百分比与PFS显著相关，而中性粒细胞、非经典单核细胞和淋巴细胞百分比与OS相关。然而，在多变量分析中，所有这些结果相关性均不独立于IGCCCG。数据表明GCT患者不同先天性/适应性外周免疫细胞亚群之间存在联系。此外，还研究了这些亚群与肿瘤特征之间的关联。本研究结果可能有助于更深入地了解GCT患者癌症与先天性/适应性免疫反应之间的相互作用。
