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. 2018 Apr;472(4):589-598.
doi: 10.1007/s00428-018-2326-0. Epub 2018 Mar 8.

Immune cell landscape in therapy-naïve squamous cell and adenocarcinomas of the lung

Luka Brcic  1 , Stefanie Stanzer  2 , Dagmar Krenbek  3 , Ulrike Gruber-Moesenbacher  4 , Gudrun Absenger  2 , Franz Quehenberger  5 , Arschang Valipour  6 , Joerg Lindenmann  7 , Herbert Stoeger  2 , Mohamed Al Effah  8 , Melanie Fediuk  7 , Marija Balic  2 , Helmut H Popper  8
Affiliations

Immune cell landscape in therapy-naïve squamous cell and adenocarcinomas of the lung

Luka Brcic et al. Virchows Arch. 2018 Apr.

Abstract

Squamous cell and adenocarcinomas of the lung develop different mechanisms during carcinogenesis to evade attacks of the immune system. Besides the well-known check-point control programmed death 1 and its ligand, many more mechanisms, acting either tumoricidal or in favor of tumor progression, exist. Analysis of the immune cell profiles in resected tissues and bronchoalveolar lavage samples and correlation between them and with overall survival data was performed. In all tumor samples in this study, cells of the immune system expressed a tumor-cooperating phenotype. High numbers of regulatory T cells, or alternatively expression of Vista on lymphocytes was present. Tumoricidal dendritic cells were absent in tumor tissue, and barely present in bronchoalveolar lavage, whereas tumor-friendly monocytoid and plasmocytoid dendritic cells were seen in both. Alveolar macrophages were predominantly differentiated into tumor-cooperating M2 types, whereas tumoricidal M1 macrophages were absent or rare. The expression of PDL1 on tumor cells did not correlate with any other immune cells. Expression of PD1 on lymphocytes was frequently encountered. None of analyzed immune cells showed correlation with overall survival. Immune cells in bronchoalveolar lavage and tissue did not correlate. For the first time, a tissue-based analysis of different immune cells in squamous cell and adenocarcinomas of the lung is provided, trying to explain their potential role in tumor development and progression. Discordant numbers of cells with bronchoalveolar lavage are most probably due to the fact that bronchoalveolar lavage reflects the situation in the whole lung, where chronic obstructive lung disease and other conditions are present.

Keywords: Bronchoalveolar lavage; Dendritic cells; Immune cells; Immune system; Myeloid-derived suppressor cells; Non-small-cell lung cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Immunohistochemistry for different immune cells within examples of squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas. a High numbers of regulatory T cells. b Vista-positive lymphocytes in high numbers surrounding tumor cells. c Dendritic cells expressing S100 protein and d expressing CD64. e Myeloid-derived suppressor cells, here CD15 positive. f CD206-positive macrophages of M2 type. CD8-positive cytotoxic T cells are present with uneven numbers in g tumor center and h invasion front. Bars represent the magnification
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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