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Y. Kawakami



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    MA 05 - Immuno-Oncology: Novel Biomarker Candidates (ID 658)

    • Event: WCLC 2017
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Immunology and Immunotherapy
    • Presentations: 1
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      MA 05.04 - Distinct Immunosuppressive Microenvironment Determines Poor Prognosis of Nonsmokers with Adenocarcinoma of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (ID 7388)

      15:45 - 17:30  |  Author(s): Y. Kawakami

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      Recent clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, not all the patients receive survival benefit from these immunotherapies. In an attempt to refine the current strategy of cancer immunotherapy to treat NSCLC, we examined the influence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) on postoperative survival.

      Method:
      We evaluated the prognostic significance of TILs (CD4[+], CD8[+], and FOXP3[+]) comprehensively by immunohistochemical (n = 234) and immune-related gene expression analysis (n = 58), and explored the relationship between immune features and clinical characteristics including histological types, smoking habit, epidermal growth factor receptor mutation, and postoperative survival.

      Result:
      Compared with non-adenocarcinoma (non-AD) patients, adenocarcinoma (AD) tumors had significantly higher number of tumor-infiltrating CD4[+] T cells (P < 0.05) but lower CD8[+] T cells and FOXP3[+] T cells (P < 0.01). We found higher accumulation of CD8[+] T cells in non-AD patients was correlated with longer survival, indicating it is a better prognostic factor (P < 0.02). On the contrary, high accumulation of CD8[+] T cells and FOXP3[+] T cells were identified as unfavorable prognostic factors (P < 0.05) in AD patients, particularly in AD nonsmokers (P < 0.02). The expression of activated T cell-related genes including interferon gamma and granzyme was associated with CD8[+] T-cell accumulation in non-AD patients, but not in AD patients, especially in AD nonsmokers. Infiltrating CD8[+] T cells were significantly less activated in immunosuppressive microenvironment with high expression of immunoregulation related genes including GATA3, IL13, CCR4 and CCL17 in AD nonsmokers (P < 0.05). In AD nonsmokers, there are possibly immunodysfunctional CD8[+] GATA3[+] T cells (P < 0.01) and immunoregulatory CD8[+] FOXP3[+] T cells (P < 0.01), accompanied by immunoregulatory CD4[+] FOXP3[+] CCR4[+] T cells (P < 0.01) that may be recruited by CCL17 produced by tumor-associated CD163[+] macrophages (P < 0.05) in IL13-associated tumor microenvironments (P < 0.05).

      Conclusion:
      In contrast to presence of activated CD8[+] T cells in non-AD, CD8[+] T cells are not activated, and may include dysfunctional and immunoregulatory T cells, accompanied by FOXP3[+] regulatory T cells and M2-like macrophages in IL13-associated tumor microenvironment of AD nonsmokers. Our study suggests that modulation of such immunosuppressive condition may be an attractive strategy for treatment of AD nonsmokers including immune-checkpoint blockade.

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