Uchida Takahiro, Nakagome Kazuyuki, Hashimoto Kosuke, Iemura Hidetoshi, Shiko Yuki, Mouri Atsuto, Yamaguchi Ou, Uchida Yoshitaka, Nagai Yoshiaki, Soma Tomoyuki, Kaira Kyoichi, Nagata Makoto, Kagamu Hiroshi
Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergy Center, Saitama Medical University, Saitama, Japan.
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Saitama Medical University International Medical Center, Saitama, Japan.
Front Immunol. 2025 Oct 7;16:1574314. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1574314. eCollection 2025.
The relationship between eosinophilia and cancer development has recently been investigated. However, the role of eosinophils in tumor immunity, particularly in the context of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, remains poorly understood.
We investigated the relationship between peripheral blood eosinophil and T-lymphocyte subsets and the clinical characteristics of patients undergoing anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) monotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The study included 204 patients treated with nivolumab monotherapy, and clinical data and treatment responses were recorded. PBMCs were collected from 44 out of 204 patients before treatment to analyze T-lymphocyte subsets, focusing on their correlation with blood eosinophils.
The percentage of blood eosinophils before nivolumab treatment was positively correlated with the percentage of effector memory subsets in both CD4 (r = 0.43, p = 0.0045) and CD8 T cells (r = 0.35, p = 0.020). It was negatively correlated with the percentage of naïve subsets of CD4 T cells and positively correlated with the percentage of inducible T cell co-stimulator cells among CD8 T cells. Patients with higher eosinophil levels (≥1.7%) before nivolumab treatment exhibited significantly longer progression-free survival (log-rank p = 0.014) and overall survival (log-rank p = 0.001) than those with lower eosinophil levels. An early increase in the eosinophil count after treatment was also associated with a better response to nivolumab.
Higher blood eosinophil levels may indicate activated T-cell immunity and may be a promising biomarker for the efficacy of anti-PD-1 monotherapy in patients with NSCLC.
最近对嗜酸性粒细胞增多与癌症发展之间的关系进行了研究。然而，嗜酸性粒细胞在肿瘤免疫中的作用，特别是在免疫检查点抑制剂（ICI）治疗的背景下，仍知之甚少。
我们研究了外周血嗜酸性粒细胞与T淋巴细胞亚群之间的关系，以及接受抗程序性细胞死亡蛋白1（PD-1）单药治疗的非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）患者的临床特征。该研究纳入了204例接受纳武单抗单药治疗的患者，并记录了临床数据和治疗反应。在治疗前从204例患者中的44例收集外周血单个核细胞（PBMC）以分析T淋巴细胞亚群，重点关注它们与血液嗜酸性粒细胞的相关性。
纳武单抗治疗前血液嗜酸性粒细胞百分比与CD4（r = 0.43，p = 0.0045）和CD8 T细胞（r = 0.35，p = 0.020）中效应记忆亚群的百分比呈正相关。它与CD4 T细胞幼稚亚群的百分比呈负相关，与CD8 T细胞中诱导性T细胞共刺激分子细胞的百分比呈正相关。纳武单抗治疗前嗜酸性粒细胞水平较高（≥1.7%）的患者与嗜酸性粒细胞水平较低的患者相比，无进展生存期显著更长（对数秩检验p = 0.014）和总生存期显著更长（对数秩检验p = 0.001）。治疗后嗜酸性粒细胞计数的早期增加也与对纳武单抗的更好反应相关。
较高的血液嗜酸性粒细胞水平可能表明T细胞免疫激活，并且可能是NSCLC患者抗PD-1单药治疗疗效的一个有前景的生物标志物。
