scholarly journals Tumor Immune Microenvironment Characteristics and Their Prognostic Value in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Su ◽  
Gao Wu ◽  
Ran Xiong ◽  
Xiangxiang Sun ◽  
Meiqing Xu ◽  
...  

IntroductionCancer progression is determined not only by the malignant behavior of tumors but also by the immune microenvironment. The tumor immune microenvironment also plays a pivotal role in determining the clinical response of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to immunotherapies. To understand the possible mechanisms and explore new targets in lung cancer immunotherapy, we characterized the immune profiles in NSCLC patients.MethodsSeventy-one NSCLC patients who underwent radical resection were selected. The immune cell composition in paired tumor and adjacent normal lung tissues was tested by flow cytometry. The associations of tumor immune microenvironment characteristics with clinicopathological factors and overall survival were analyzed. Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine differences in survival.ResultsCompared with adjacent normal lung tissues, an increased proportion of CD45+ hematopoietic-derived cells, CD4+ T cell subtypes, Tregs and B cells was observed in tumor samples with a reduced frequency of myeloid cell populations. There was no significant increase in total CD8+ T cells, but both PD1+ and CD38+ CD8+ T cells were significantly enriched in tumor samples and statistically significantly associated with tumor size. In addition, positive CD38 expression was highly correlated with PD1 positivity. A high proportion of CD8+ T cells and a low percentage of PD1+ CD8+ T cells were statistically significantly associated with better survival in stage II and III patients, whereas a low frequency of CD38+ CD8+ T cells was statistically significantly associated with better survival in all patients and identified as an independent prognostic factor (p=0.049).ConclusionWe profiled the immune cells in the tumor tissues of NSCLC patients using flow cytometry. The results revealed significant enrichment of infiltrating immune cells. A strong correlation was identified between CD38 and PD-1 expression on CD8+ T cells in tumors. CD8+ T cells and their subtypes play a critical role in the prediction of prognosis.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (5_suppl) ◽  
pp. 140-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Reuben ◽  
Rachel Gittelman ◽  
Jiexin Zhang ◽  
Kelly Quek ◽  
Luis M Vence ◽  
...  

140 Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is characterized by a high mutational load. Accordingly, it is also among the tumor types which respond best to immune checkpoint blockade, likely through its ability to enhance the anti-tumor T cell response. However, the lung is constantly exposed to the outside environment, which may result in a continuous state of inflammation targeting pathogens rather than tumor cells. Therefore, a greater understanding of the T cell receptor (TCR) landscape and phenotypes across normal lung and tumor is warranted. Methods: Here, we performed sequencing of the CDR3 variable region of the beta chain of the TCR as well as whole exome sequencing on peripheral blood, normal lung and tumor in 235 NSCLC patients. We further analyzed the immune microenvironment by Cytometry by Time-of-Flight (CyTOF) in 10 NSCLC patients with paired normal lung and tumor. Results: Comparison of the TCR repertoire showed 9% (up to 15%) of T cells were shared between normal lung and tumor, though the most dominant were generally shared (up to 95%). Interestingly, T cell clonality was higher in the normal lung than tumor in almost all patients (89%, p < 0.0001) suggesting potential differences in the ongoing immune response in different regions of the lung. A substantial number of non-synonymous exonic mutations (NSEM) were detected in tumors (average = 566 NSEM) but also in the normal lung (average = 156 NSEM), with many shared (up to 45.6%). CyTOF confirmed marked differences in the immune microenvironment, including higher frequency of VISTA+ antigen-presenting cells in the tumor (p = 0.04). Finally, analysis of clinicopathological attributes revealed a greater T cell diversity in the periphery in patients with increased overall survival (OS, p = 0.001), while patients with a more similar normal lung/tumor T cell repertoire showed decreased OS (p = 0.028). Conclusions: These results suggest that a substantial proportion of infiltrating T cells in NSCLC tumors may be lung-resident T cells associated with response to environmental factors. However, normal lung and NSCLC tumors carry T cells of distinct phenotypes, which highlights differences in the ongoing antigenic response within the lung.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiyong Chen ◽  
Hongliang Liao ◽  
Longlong Gong ◽  
Jingting Liu ◽  
Lin Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Tumor cells expressing programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) correlate with a better prognosis of immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 on immune cells is also concerned by more and more researchers.Methods: This study included 174 patients with NSCLC, and collected from the month of December in 2012 to April 2019. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples from NSCLC patients were performed by multiplex immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining using CD8, CD57, CD68, CD163, PD-1 and PD-L1. Marker localization included each type of immune cell subset with PD-1 or PD-L1 was quantified and analyzed.Results: The present study revealed distribution characteristics of PD-1 and PD-L1 on CD8+ T cells, CD57+ NK cells, CD68+ macrophages and CD163+ M2 macrophages in NSCLC patients using multiplex IHC, which indicated that expression of PD-1 was higher on CD8+ T cells and expression of PD-L1 was higher on CD8+ T cells and CD68+ macrophages. Immune clustering analysis showed that the low immune feature group displayed more survival rate than the high group. The reason was due to higher ratios of CD8/PD-L1 in the low group compared with the high group in the NSCLC cohort. Further, the Kaplan-Meier analysis of survival rate according infiltration of different immune cells also indicated that low CD57+ NK cells and low CD68+ macrophages were associated with a higher survival rate. The similar results were observed in the Kaplan-Meier analysis of expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 on immune cells.Conclusions: Taken together, we displayed the expression characteristics of PD-1 and PD-L1 on tumor-infiltrating immune cells and revealed that high expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 on immune cells was associated with poor survival rate. The present study provided further evidence to better guide clinical treatment in NSCLC.


Author(s):  
Yueqin Sun ◽  
Qi Yang ◽  
Jie Shen ◽  
Ting Wei ◽  
Weitao Shen ◽  
...  

Background: The emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has opened a new chapter for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and the best beneficiaries of ICI treatment are still being explored. Smoking status has been repeatedly confirmed to affect the efficacy of ICIs in NSCLC patients, but the specific mechanism is still unclear.Methods: We performed analysis on the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) clinical NSCLC cohort receiving ICI treatment, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Pan-Lung Cancer cohort, and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database GSE41271 lung cancer cohort that did not receive ICI treatment, including survival prognosis, gene mutation, copy number variation, immunogenicity, and immune microenvironment, and explored the impact of smoking status on the prognosis of NSCLC patients treated with ICIs and possible mechanism. In addition, 8 fresh NSCLC surgical tissue samples were collected for mass cytometry (CyTOF) experiments to further characterize the immune characteristics and verify the mechanism.Result: Through the analysis of the clinical data of the NSCLC cohort treated with ICIs in MSKCC, it was found that the smokers in NSCLC receiving ICI treatment had a longer progression-free survival (HR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.49–0.97, p = 0.031) than those who never smoked. Further analysis of the TCGA and GEO validation cohorts found that the differences in prognosis between different groups may be related to the smoking group’s higher immunogenicity, higher gene mutations, and stronger immune microenvironment. The results of the CyTOF experiment further found that the immune microenvironment of smoking group was characterized by higher expression of immune positive regulatory chemokine, and higher abundance of immune activated cells, including follicular helper CD4+ T cells, gamma delta CD4+ T cells, activated DC, and activated CD8+ T cells. In contrast, the immune microenvironment of non-smoking group was significantly enriched for immunosuppressive related cells, including regulatory T cells and M2 macrophages. Finally, we also found highly enriched CD45RAhighCD4+ T cells and CD45RAhighCD8+ T cells in the non-smoking group.Conclusion: Our research results suggest that among NSCLC patients receiving ICI treatment, the stronger immunogenicity and activated immune microenvironment of the smoking group make their prognosis better.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e21551-e21551
Author(s):  
Hongyuan Zhu ◽  
Yunfang Yu ◽  
Yating Zheng ◽  
Bin Xu ◽  
Shaopeng Zheng ◽  
...  

e21551 Background: Molecular characterization studies revealed recurrent KEAP1/ NFE2L2 alterations in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Previous studies have confirmed that KEAP1/NFE2L2 mutations are a poor prognostic factor for chemotherapy in patients with NSCLC. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether KEAP1/NFE2L2 mutations (MUT) of liquid biopsy can predict the efficacy of immunotherapy in NSCLC. Methods: Two independent cohorts (the OAK and POPLAR study cohort) with data from approximately 853 patients with advanced NSCLC were used to analyze the prognostic effect of KEAP1/NFE2L2 on immunotherapy. In addition, based on a deconvolution algorithm (known as CIBERSORT), we comprehensively analyzed the tumor-infiltrating immune cells present in NSCLC. The fraction of 22 immune cells subpopulations was evaluated to determine the associations between each cell type and KEAP1/NFE2L2 mutation status utilizing data from 1268 patients by lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and squamous cell lung carcinoma (LUSC) in TCGA pan-cancer cohort. Results: The OAK and POPLAR study cohort of NSCLC patients showed that KEAP1/NFE2L2 MUT was associated with poorer overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS) (OS: HR = 1.7, P < 0.001; PFS:HR = 1.4, P < 0.001) on immunotherapy, even after EGFR and ALK mutations were excluded, significant difference can also be gained (OS:HR = 1.8, P < 0.001; PFS:HR = 1.5, P < 0.001). Then, the NSCLC patients were subdivided into LUAD and LUSC, the OS and PFS of patients with KEAP1/NFE2L2 MUT is lower than wild-type (WT) (OS:HR = 1.8, P < 0.001; PFS:HR = 1.4, P = 0.0014) in LUAD, significant differences were obtained even when EGFR and ALK mutations were excluded (OS:HR = 1.9, P < 0.001;PFS:HR = 1.6, P < 0.001). In LUSC, patients with KEAP1/NFE2L2 MUT have lower OS (HR = 1.4, P = 0.0473),and there was no difference on PFS (HR = 1.2, P = 0.1588) between KEAP1/NFE2L2 MUT and WT, when EGFR and ALK mutations were excluded, the survival results did not change significantly. In addition, KEAP1/NFE2L2 MUT was positively correlated with infiltrating levels of plasma cells, T cells CD4 memory activated, T cells follicular helper, and Macrophages M1, but negatively correlated with infiltrating levels of T cells CD4 memory resting, monocytes, Dendritic cells activated, Mast cells resting, and Neutrophils in NSCLC. The immunoinfiltration of LUAD was significantly different from that of LUSC. Conclusions: These findings suggest that KEAP1/NFE2L2 can be used as a poorer biomarker for determining prognosis on immunotherapy and immune infiltration in NSCLC.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3828
Author(s):  
Anello Marcello Poma ◽  
Rossella Bruno ◽  
Iacopo Pietrini ◽  
Greta Alì ◽  
Giulia Pasquini ◽  
...  

Pembrolizumab has been approved as first-line treatment for advanced Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with tumors expressing PD-L1 and in the absence of other targetable alterations. However, not all patients that meet these criteria have a durable benefit. In this monocentric study, we aimed at refining the selection of patients based on the expression of immune genes. Forty-six consecutive advanced NSCLC patients treated with pembrolizumab in first-line setting were enrolled. The expression levels of 770 genes involved in the regulation of the immune system was analysed by the nanoString system. PD-L1 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Patients with durable clinical benefit had a greater infiltration of cytotoxic cells, exhausted CD8, B-cells, CD45, T-cells, CD8 T-cells and NK cells. Immune cell scores such as CD8 T-cell and NK cell were good predictors of durable response with an AUC of 0.82. Among the immune cell markers, XCL1/2 showed the better performance in predicting durable benefit to pembrolizumab, with an AUC of 0.85. Additionally, CD8A, CD8B and EOMES showed a high specificity (>0.86) in identifying patients with a good response to treatment. In the same series, PD-L1 expression levels had an AUC of 0.61. The characterization of tumor microenvironment, even with the use of single markers, can improve patients’ selection for pembrolizumab treatment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Zhao ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Zhenlin Gao ◽  
Yaguang Han

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of peripheral naive and memory CD8+ and CD4+ T cells and other immune cells in patients with oligometastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) undergoing radiotherapy (RT). Methods: A total of 142 patients with oligometastatic NSCLC treated with RT were enrolled, and their blood samples were collected within 3 days before RT. Immune cells were identified by flow cytometry. Results: Patients with high levels of naive CD8+ T cells had longer overall survival (p = 0.004) and progression-free survival (p = 0.001) than those with low levels of naive CD8+ T cells. Multivariate analyses revealed that naive CD8+ T cells were independently correlated with overall survival (p = 0.019) and progression-free survival (p = 0.024). Conclusion: The results suggest that peripheral naive CD8+ T cells may be an independent prognostic indicator for patients with oligometastatic NSCLC undergoing RT.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A1013-A1013
Author(s):  
Stephanie Schmidt ◽  
Younghee Lee ◽  
Cheuk Leung ◽  
Lorenzo Federico ◽  
Heather Lin ◽  
...  

BackgroundHow neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy modulates tumor immune composition and response is not completely understood. We interrogate immunomodulation of neoadjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy (C), nivolumab (N), and N-plus-C (NC) and their connections to therapeutic efficacy in resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by integrating immunomic data from the ImmunogenomiC PrOfiling of NSCLC (ICON) study and NEOSTAR trial cohorts.MethodsIn NEOSTAR (NCT03158129), patients with stage I-IIIA (single N2) resectable NSCLC (AJCC7th) received N (3 mg/kg IV, D1,15,29); patients with stage IB(≥4cm)-IIIA (single N2) resectable NSCLC received NC (N 360 mg IV plus C, D1,22,43 for 3 cycles, every 3 weeks) before surgery; major pathologic response (MPR) was the primary endpoint. In ICON, patients with stage IB(≥4cm)-IIIA resectable NSCLC received C before surgery. Surgically resected tumor samples underwent immune profiling via flow cytometry (n=16,13,9 for C,N,NC), immunohistochemistry (IHC;n=0,18,14), and multiplexed immunofluorescence (mIF;n=28,16,10). Treatment-associated immunomodulation and associations with therapeutic efficacy were analyzed using: 1) a shared nearest neighbors-based network we developed linking measurements across datasets; 2) MetaCyto, a specialized cytometry analysis method for identifying cell subsets by clustering.ResultsWe holistically explored the immunomic data by integration across cohorts. Through hierarchical regression of the integrated data, we determined the overall effect of a given treatment controlling for the presence or absence of the other treatment.We examined C’s effects across all cohorts controlling for N. Across all patients, regardless of MPR, C is associated with immunosuppression, increasing PD1+ T cell (CD45+CD3+) populations: regulatory (CD4+CD25+FOXP3+), helper (CD4+), and effector (CD8+) (effect size(ES):1.48,1.61,1.26;q<0.05). C also decreases proliferative (Ki67+) populations: helper and effector T cells as well as NK (CD45+CD3-CD56+) cells (ES:-1.27,-1.43;-1.36;q<0.05). In patients without MPR (i.e., non-responding patients), immunosuppression appears heightened by increased Ki67+ regulatory T cells (ES:1.86;q<0.05).Conversely, we examined N’s effects across all cohorts controlling for C. Across all patients, regardless of MPR, N is associated with immune activation, increasing ICOS+ T cell populations: regulatory, helper, and effector (ES:1.29,1.29,1.47;q<0.05). Comparing N and NC reveals that adding C may drive exhaustion by increasing TIM3+ regulatory, helper and effector T cells (ES:1.16,1.17,1.23;q<0.05), an effect more pronounced in non-responding patients (ES:1.31,1.33,1.35;q<0.05).ConclusionsWe report the first integrated examination of the immunomodulatory effect of neoadjuvant C and N. C is associated with immunosuppression while N with immune activation; together, N appears to lessen C’s suppressive effects. Incorporation of transcriptomics into this integrated network of flow cytometry, mIF, and IHC immune profiling data is ongoing to augment translational insights for neoadjuvant chemo/immunotherapies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 2407-2419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong-Min Wang ◽  
Xiao-Hong Zhang ◽  
Ming-Ming Feng ◽  
Yan-Jun Qiao ◽  
Li-Qun Ye ◽  
...  

Background/Aims: Interleukin (IL)-35 has immunosuppressive functions in autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and certain cancers. However, few studies have focused on its immunoregulatory activity in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Thus, we investigated the role of IL-35 in the pathogenesis of this disease. Methods: A total of 66 NSCLC patients and 21 healthy individuals were enrolled. IL-35 expression in peripheral blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was measured. The modulatory functions of IL-35 on purified CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from NSCLC patients were investigated in direct and indirect coculture systems with NSCLC cell lines. Results: IL-35 expression was significantly increased in BALF from the tumor site, but not in the peripheral blood of NSCLC patients. IL-35 did not affect the bioactivity including proliferation, cytokine production, cell cycle, and cellular invasion of NSCLC cells. It suppressed responses from type 1 T helper (Th1) and Th17 cells but elevated the regulatory T cell response in cultured CD4+ T cells from NSCLC patients, and reduced cytokine-mediated CD4+ T cells cytotoxicity to NSCLC cells. Moreover, IL-35 also inhibited cytotoxic gene expression in CD8+ T cells from NSCLC, reducing their cytolytic and noncytolytic functions. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that IL-35 contributes to the dysfunction/exhaustion of T cells and limited antitumor immune responses in NSCLC.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Liu ◽  
Wang Jing ◽  
Ning An ◽  
Aijie Li ◽  
Weiwei Yan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Noninvasive prognostic biomarkers are needed for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with different histological types to identify cases with poor survival. Here, we investigated the prognostic values of peripheral CD8+CD28+ T cells and CD8+CD28− T cells in advanced NSCLC patients treated with chemo(radio)therapy and the impact of histological type on them. Methods Of 232 registered advanced NSCLC patients, 101 treatment-naïve individuals were eligible and included in our study. Flow cytometry was used to evaluate CD8+CD28+ T cells, CD8+CD28− T cells, CD4+ CD25hi T cells, B cells, natural killer cells, γδT cells, and natural killer T cells in patients’ peripheral blood. Results The median follow-up time was 13.6 months. Fifty-nine (58.4%) patients died by the end of our study. Fifty-three of the 101 advanced NSCLC cases selected for our study were adenocarcinomas (ADs), and 48 were squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). Multivariate analyses showed that increased levels of CD8+CD28+ T cells independently predicted favorable overall survival (OS) [hazard ratio (HR): 0.51, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.30–0.89, P = 0.021] and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR: 0.66, 95% CI 0.37–0.93, P = 0.038) in ADs, but the prediction in SCCs was not statistically significant. In contrast, high levels of CD8+CD28− T cells independently predicted unfavorable OS (HR: 1.41, 95% CI 1.17–3.06, P = 0.035) and PFS (HR: 2.01, 95% CI 1.06–3.85, P = 0.029) in SCCs, but the prediction in ADs was not statistically significant. ADs had higher levels of CD4+CD25hi T cells and CD8+CD28− T cells and lower NK cells (all P < 0.05) than SCCs. Conclusions Our findings uncovered the prognostic values of peripheral CD8+CD28+ T cells and CD8+CD28− T cells in advanced NSCLC patients treated with chemo(radio)therapy, which could help to identify patients with poor outcomes and refine treatment strategies.


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