Department of General Surgery, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Front Immunol. 2022 Apr 7;13:872353. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.872353. eCollection 2022.
Natural killer (NK) cells play major roles in eliminating tumor cells. Preliminary studies have shown that NK cells and their receptors/ligands have prognostic value in malignant tumors. However, the relevance of NK cells and their receptors/ligands level to the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear.
Several electronic databases were searched from database inception to November 8, 2021. Random effects were introduced to this meta-analysis. The relevance of NK cells and their receptors/ligands level to the prognosis of HCC was evaluated using hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence interval (95%CI).
26 studies were included in the analysis. The pooled results showed that high NK cells levels were associated with better overall survival (HR=0.70, 95%CI 0.57-0.86, P=0.001) and disease-free survival (HR=0.61, 95%CI 0.40-0.93, P=0.022) of HCC patients. In subgroup analysis for overall survival, CD57 NK cells (HR=0.70, 95%CI 0.55-0.89, P=0.004) had better prognostic value over CD56 NK cells (HR=0.69, 95%CI 0.38-1.25, P=0.224), and intratumor NK cells had better prognostic value (HR=0.71, 95%CI 0.55-0.90, P=0.005) over peripheral NK cells (HR=0.66, 95%CI 0.41-1.06, P=0.088). In addition, high level of NK cell inhibitory receptors predicted increased recurrence of HCC, while the prognostic role of NK cell activating receptors remained unclear.
NK cells and their inhibitory receptors have prognostic value for HCC. The prognostic role of NK cell activating receptors is unclear and more high-quality prospective studies are essential to evaluate the prognostic value of NK cells and their receptors/ligands for HCC.
自然杀伤 (NK) 细胞在消除肿瘤细胞方面发挥着重要作用。初步研究表明，NK 细胞及其受体/配体在恶性肿瘤中具有预后价值。然而，NK 细胞及其受体/配体水平与肝细胞癌 (HCC) 预后的相关性尚不清楚。
从数据库创建开始到 2021 年 11 月 8 日，在多个电子数据库中进行了搜索。本荟萃分析采用了随机效应。使用风险比 (HR) 及其 95%置信区间 (95%CI) 评估 NK 细胞及其受体/配体水平与 HCC 预后的相关性。
共纳入 26 项研究。汇总结果表明，NK 细胞水平较高与 HCC 患者的总生存期 (HR=0.70, 95%CI 0.57-0.86, P=0.001) 和无病生存期 (HR=0.61, 95%CI 0.40-0.93, P=0.022) 改善相关。总生存亚组分析显示，CD57 NK 细胞 (HR=0.70, 95%CI 0.55-0.89, P=0.004) 比 CD56 NK 细胞 (HR=0.69, 95%CI 0.38-1.25, P=0.224) 具有更好的预后价值，肿瘤内 NK 细胞 (HR=0.71, 95%CI 0.55-0.90, P=0.005) 比外周 NK 细胞 (HR=0.66, 95%CI 0.41-1.06, P=0.088) 具有更好的预后价值。此外，NK 细胞抑制性受体水平升高预示着 HCC 复发增加，而 NK 细胞激活性受体的预后作用尚不清楚。
NK 细胞及其抑制性受体对 HCC 具有预后价值。NK 细胞激活性受体的预后作用尚不清楚，需要更多高质量的前瞻性研究来评估 NK 细胞及其受体/配体对 HCC 的预后价值。
