Xagara Anastasia, Roumeliotou Argyro, Kokkalis Alexandros, Tsapakidis Konstantinos, Papakonstantinou Dimitris, Papadopoulos Vassilis, Samaras Ioannis, Chantzara Evagelia, Kallergi Galatea, Kotsakis Athanasios
Laboratory of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, GR-41110 Larissa, Greece.
Laboratory of Biochemistry/Metastatic Signaling, Section of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, Department of Biology, University of Patras, GR-26504 Patras, Greece.
Biomedicines. 2024 Jan 10;12(1):146. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12010146.
SCLC is an aggressive cancer type with high metastatic potential and bad prognosis. CTCs are a valuable source of tumor cells in blood circulation and are among the major contributors to metastasis. In this study we evaluated the number of CTCs that express PD-L1 in treatment-naïve ES-SCLC patients receiving ICI in a front-line setting. Moreover, we explored the percentages of different immune T-cell subsets in circulation to assess their potential role in predicting responses. A total of 43 patients were enrolled-6 of them with LS-SCLC, and 37 with ES-SCLC disease. In addition, PBMCs from 10 healthy donors were used as a control group. Different T-cell subtypes were examined through multicolor FACS analysis and patients' CTCs were detected using immunofluorescence staining. SCLC patients had higher percentages of PD-1-expressing CD3CD4 and CD3CD8 T-cells, as well as elevated PD-1 protein expression compared to healthy individuals. Additionally, in ES-SCLC patients, a positive correlation between CD3CD8PD-1 T-cells and PD-L1 CTCs was detected. Importantly, patients harboring higher numbers of CD3CD8PD-1 T-cells together with PD-L1CTCs had a survival advantage when receiving front-line immunotherapy. Thus, this study proposes, for first time possible, immune cell-CTCs interaction, as well as a potential novel clinical biomarker for ICI responses in ES-SCLC patients.
小细胞肺癌(SCLC)是一种侵袭性癌症类型,具有高转移潜能和不良预后。循环肿瘤细胞(CTCs)是血液循环中肿瘤细胞的重要来源,也是转移的主要促成因素之一。在本研究中,我们评估了一线接受免疫检查点抑制剂(ICI)治疗的初治广泛期小细胞肺癌(ES-SCLC)患者中表达程序性死亡受体配体1(PD-L1)的CTCs数量。此外,我们还探究了循环中不同免疫T细胞亚群的百分比,以评估它们在预测反应中的潜在作用。共纳入43例患者,其中6例为局限期小细胞肺癌(LS-SCLC),37例为ES-SCLC。另外,来自10名健康供者的外周血单个核细胞(PBMCs)用作对照组。通过多色荧光激活细胞分选(FACS)分析检测不同的T细胞亚型,使用免疫荧光染色检测患者的CTCs。与健康个体相比,SCLC患者中表达程序性死亡受体1(PD-1)的CD3⁺CD4⁺和CD3⁺CD8⁺T细胞百分比更高,且PD-1蛋白表达升高。此外,在ES-SCLC患者中,检测到CD3⁺CD8⁺PD-1⁺T细胞与PD-L1⁺CTCs之间呈正相关。重要的是,在接受一线免疫治疗时,同时具有较高数量CD3⁺CD8⁺PD-1⁺T细胞和PD-L1⁺CTCs的患者具有生存优势。因此,本研究首次提出了免疫细胞与CTCs之间可能的相互作用,以及ES-SCLC患者ICI反应的潜在新型临床生物标志物。