Erschienen in:
01.06.2013 | Original Article
Elevated level of peripheral CD8+CD28− T lymphocytes are an independent predictor of progression-free survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer during the course of chemotherapy
verfasst von:
Guohong Song, Xiaoli Wang, Jun Jia, Yanhua Yuan, Fengling Wan, Xinna Zhou, Huabing Yang, Jun Ren, Jiezhun Gu, Herbert Kim Lyerly
Erschienen in:
Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy
|
Ausgabe 6/2013
Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten
Abstract
Purpose
Suppression of cellular immunity resulting from tumorigenesis and/or therapy might promote cancer cells’ growth, progression and invasion. Here, we explored whether T lymphocyte subtypes from peripheral blood of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) female patients could be used as alternative surrogate markers for cancer progress. Additionally, plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IFN-γ, and transforming growth factor-β1 were quantitated from MBC and healthy volunteers.
Experimental design
This study included 89 female MBC patients during the post-salvage chemotherapy follow-up and 50 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers as control. The percentages of T lymphocyte subpopulations from peripheral blood and plasma levels of cytokines were measured.
Results
Both CD8+CD28− and CD4+CD25+ were elevated in MBC patients compared to the control cohort (P < 0.05). In contrast, CD3+ and CD8+CD28+cells were significantly lower in MBC patients (P < 0.0001, P = 0.045, respectively). MBC patients had elevated levels of immunosuppressive cytokines IL-6 and IL-10. Patients with elevated CD8+CD28− and CD4+CD25+ cells showed increased levels of IL-6, and only patients with elevated CD8+CD28− had decreased interferon-γ. Univariate analysis indicated increased CD3+CD4+ or CD8+CD28+correlated with prolonged progression-free survival (PFS), while elevated CD8+CD28−associated with shorten PFS. The percent of CD8+CD28− T lymphocytes is an independent predictor for PFS through multivariate analysis.
Conclusions
This study suggests that progressive elevated levels of CD8+CD28− suppressor T lymphocytes represent a novel independent predictor of PFS during post-chemotherapy follow-up.