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
Review
. 2017 Aug 8;117(4):451-460.
doi: 10.1038/bjc.2017.220. Epub 2017 Jul 13.

HYPE or HOPE: the prognostic value of infiltrating immune cells in cancer

Tristan A Barnes  1 , Eitan Amir  1
Affiliations
Review

HYPE or HOPE: the prognostic value of infiltrating immune cells in cancer

Tristan A Barnes et al. Br J Cancer. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Interactions between immune and malignant cells have been known to have clinical relevance for decades. The potential for immune control is now being therapeutically enhanced with checkpoint inhibitors and other novel agents to improve outcomes in cancer. The importance of the immune infiltrate as a prognostic marker is increasingly relevant. In this minireview, we present an overview of the immune infiltrate and its spatial organisation, and summarise the prognostic value of immune cells in different cancer types. International collaborative efforts are standardising histopathologic reporting of the immune infiltrate, to allow application of these parameters in the clinical and research settings. In general terms, a 'pro-inflammatory' tumour microenvironment and infiltrating CD8-expressing T lymphocytes are associated with improved clinical outcomes in a broad range of tumour types. The inhibitory function of other immune cells, for example, myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T cells, appear to have a major role in disrupting the capacity for the immune control of cancers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pathways affecting cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity within the tumour microenvironment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adams S, Gray RJ, Demaria S, Goldstein L, Perez EA, Shulman LN, Martino S, Wang M, Jones VE, Saphner TJ, Wolff AC, Wood WC, Davidson NE, Sledge GW, Sparano JA, Badve SS (2014) Prognostic value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in triple-negative breast cancers from two phase III randomized adjuvant breast cancer trials: ECOG 2197 and ECOG 1199. J Clin Oncol 32(27): 2959–2966. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Azimi F, Scolyer RA, Rumcheva P, Moncrieff M, Murali R, McCarthy SW, Saw RP, Thompson JF (2012) Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte grade is an independent predictor of sentinel lymph node status and survival in patients with cutaneous melanoma. J Clin Oncol 30(21): 2678–2683. - PubMed
    1. Badoual C (2006) Prognostic value of tumor-infiltrating CD4+ T-cell subpopulations in head and neck cancers. Clin Cancer Res 12: 465–472. - PubMed
    1. Balermpas P, Michel Y, Wagenblast J, Seitz O, Weiss C, Rodel F, Rodel C, Fokas E (2014) Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes predict response to definitive chemoradiotherapy in head and neck cancer. Br J Cancer 110(2): 501–509. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Balermpas P, Rödel F, Rödel C, Krause M, Linge A, Lohaus F, Baumann M, Tinhofer I, Budach V, Gkika E, Stuschke M, Avlar M, Grosu A-L, Abdollahi A, Debus J, Bayer C, Stangl S, Belka C, Pigorsch S, Multhoff G, Combs SE, Mönnich D, Zips D, Fokas E (2016. a) CD8+ tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes in relation to HPV status and clinical outcome in patients with head and neck cancer after postoperative chemoradiotherapy: a multicentre study of the German cancer consortium radiation oncology group (DKTK-ROG). Int J Cancer 138(1): 171–181. - PubMed