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
. 2017 May 3;8(37):62312-62329.
doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.17602. eCollection 2017 Sep 22.

Tumor-infiltrating immune cells and prognosis in gastric cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Wen Jiang  1 , Ke Liu  1 , Qing Guo  2 , Ji Cheng  1 , Liming Shen  1 , Yinghao Cao  1 , Jing Wu  3   4 , Jianguo Shi  5 , Heng Cao  6 , Bo Liu  1 , Kaixiong Tao  1 , Guobin Wang  1 , Kailin Cai  1
Affiliations

Tumor-infiltrating immune cells and prognosis in gastric cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Wen Jiang et al. Oncotarget. .

Abstract

Tumor-infiltrating immune cells are a pivotal component of the tumor microenvironment (TME), but their indicative role remains poorly defined. A meta-analysis was performed to reveal the prognostic efficiency of tumor-infiltrating immune cells in gastric cancer (GC). By searching PubMed and Embase, we identified a total of 35 eligible articles that involved 4888 patients. Random or fixed effect models were employed to extract pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Our results indicated that high CD3+ lymphocyte infiltration in all the locations (AG), the tumor nest (TN), and the tumor stroma (TS) predicted better overall survival (OS) (HR=0.71, 95% CI=0.57-0.90; HR=0.58, 95% CI=0.42-0.80; and HR=0.50, 95% CI=0.37-0.68, respectively). CD8+ T cell infiltration in AG and FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the tumor invasive margin (TM) were also associated with improved OS (HR=0.90, 95% CI=0.83-0.97; HR=0.65, 95% CI=0.48-0.87, respectively). However, contrasting results were found in the macrophage subset, with M2 in AG (HR=1.45, 95% CI=1.13-1.86) and the TN (HR=1.67, 95% CI=1.12-2.48) associated with worse OS. In summary, the combination of the densities and locations of tumor-infiltrating immune cells can be useful for predicting survival for GC patients, but additional research is needed to reinforce the reliability of this study's conclusions.

Keywords: gastric cancer; meta-analysis; overall survival; prognosis; tumor-infiltrating immune cells.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow chart for screening eligible publications
Figure 2
Figure 2. Forest plots of HRs to assess the correlation between prognosis and tumor-infiltrating immune cells
(A) OS and CD3+, (B) OS and CD4+.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Forest plots of HRs to assess the correlation between prognosis and tumor-infiltrating immune cells
(A) OS and CD8+, (B) DFS/RFS and CD8+.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Forest plots of HRs to assess the correlation between prognosis and tumor-infiltrating immune cells
(A) OS and FoxP3+, (B) DFS/RFS and FoxP3+.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Forest plots of HRs to assess the correlation between prognosis and tumor-infiltrating immune cells
(A) OS and M, (B) DFS/RFS and M, (C) OS and M2.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Forest plots of HRs to assess the correlation between prognosis and tumor-infiltrating immune cells
(A) OS and CD45RO+, (B) OS and CD57+, (C) OS and Granzyme B (D) OS and Dendritic cell
Figure 7
Figure 7. Funnel plot of the meta-analysis
(A) OS and CD8+ infiltration in TN, (B) OS and FoxP3 infiltration in the TN
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Fitzmaurice C, Dicker D, Pain A, Hamavid H, Moradi-Lakeh M, MacIntyre MF, Allen C, Hansen G, Woodbrook R, Wolfe C, Hamadeh RR, Moore A, Werdecker A, et al. Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration. The Global Burden of Cancer 2013. JAMA Oncol. 2015;1:505–27. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Van Cutsem E, Sagaert X, Topal B, Haustermans K, Prenen H. Gastric cancer. London, England: Lancet; 2016. - PubMed
    1. Lu P, Weaver VM, Werb Z. The extracellular matrix: a dynamic niche in cancer progression. J Cell Biol. 2012;196:395–406. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fridman WH, Pagès F, Sautès-Fridman C, Galon J. The immune contexture in human tumours: impact on clinical outcome. Nat Rev Cancer. 2012;12:298–306. - PubMed
    1. Yu P, Fu YX. Tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes: friends or foes? Lab Invest. 2006;86:231–45. - PubMed