Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Jan 30;94(2):275-80.
doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6602934.

Concurrent infiltration by CD8+ T cells and CD4+ T cells is a favourable prognostic factor in non-small-cell lung carcinoma

K Hiraoka  1 , M Miyamoto, Y Cho, M Suzuoki, T Oshikiri, Y Nakakubo, T Itoh, T Ohbuchi, S Kondo, H Katoh
Affiliations

Concurrent infiltration by CD8+ T cells and CD4+ T cells is a favourable prognostic factor in non-small-cell lung carcinoma

K Hiraoka et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between the number of tumour-infiltrating T lymphocytes and the clinicopathological features and clinical outcome in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Tissue specimens from 109 patients who underwent surgical resection for NSCLC were immunohistochemically analysed for CD4 and CD8 expression. Patients were classified into two groups according to whether their tumours exhibited a 'high' or 'low' level of CD8(+) or CD4(+) lymphocyte infiltration. Although the level of infiltration by CD8(+) T cells alone had no prognostic significance, the survival rate for patients with both 'high' CD8(+) and 'high' CD4(+) T-cell infiltration was significantly higher than that for the other groups (log-rank test, P=0.006). Multivariate analysis indicated that concomitant high CD8(+) and high CD4(+) T-cell infiltration was an independent favourable prognostic factor (P=0.0092). In conclusion, the presence of high levels of both CD8(+) T cells and CD4(+) T cells is a significant indicator of a better prognosis for patients with NSCLC, and cooperation between these cell populations may allow a significantly more potent antitumour response than either population alone.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representative immunohistochemical staining of NSCLC tumour sections. (A) Adenocarcinoma (anti-CD8 antibody; original magnification, × 200). (B) Adenocarcinoma (anti-CD4 antibody, × 200). (C) Squamous cell carcinoma (anti-CD8 antibody, × 200). (D) Squamous cell carcinoma (anti-CD8 antibody, × 400). Arrows indicate CD8-positive stained lymphocytes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The correlation between the number of CD8+ T cells in cancer stroma and within cancer cell nests in patients with NSCLC.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Kaplan–Meier analysis of overall survival according to (A) the level of infiltration by CD8+ T cells in cancer stroma, (B) the level of infiltration by CD4+ T cells in cancer stroma and (C) the simultaneous presence of high levels of infiltrating CD8+ T cells and CD4+ T cells in cancer stroma in patients with NSCLC. For details about the method of classification, see Materials and Methods. aHigh-CD8+/high-CD4+ group (n=26) vs others (n=83).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Cheng TY, Wu JT, Lin RH (1998) Induction of tumor-specific T cell response by cognating tumor cells with foreign antigen-primed Th cells. Int Immunol 10: 1397–1406 - PubMed
    1. Cho Y, Miyamoto M, Kato K, Fukunaga A, Shichinohe T, Kawarada Y, Hida Y, Oshikiri T, Kurokawa T, Suzuoki M, Nakakubo Y, Hiraoka K, Murakami S, Shinohara T, Itoh T, Okushiba S, Kondo S, Katoh H (2003) CD4+ and CD8+ T cells cooperate to improve prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Cancer Res 63: 1555–1559 - PubMed
    1. Fiorentino DF, Zlotnik A, Mosmann TR, Howard M, O'Garra A (1991a) IL-10 inhibits cytokine production by activated macrophages. J Immunol 147: 3815–3822 - PubMed
    1. Fiorentino DF, Zlotnik A, Vieira P, Mosmann TR, Howard M, Moore KW, O'Garra A (1991b) IL-10 acts on the antigen-presenting cell to inhibit cytokine production by Th1 cells. J Immunol 146: 3444–3451 - PubMed
    1. Fukunaga A, Miyamoto M, Cho Y, Murakami S, Kawarada Y, Oshikiri T, Kato K, Kurokawa T, Suzuoki M, Nakakubo Y, Hiraoka K, Itoh T, Morikawa T, Okushiba S, Kondo S, Katoh H (2004) CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes together with CD4+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and dendritic cells improve the prognosis of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Pancreas 28: e26–31 - PubMed

Publication types