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
. 2022 Apr 11;15(1):43.
doi: 10.1186/s13048-022-00977-3.

Peripheral lymphocyte populations in ovarian cancer patients and correlations with clinicopathological features

Shuang Ye #  1   2 , Wei Chen #  1   3 , Yuwei Zheng #  2   4 , Yutuan Wu  1   2 , Libing Xiang  1   2 , Teng Li  5 , Bo Ping  2   4 , Xiaoming Zhang  5 , Huijuan Yang  6   7
Affiliations

Peripheral lymphocyte populations in ovarian cancer patients and correlations with clinicopathological features

Shuang Ye et al. J Ovarian Res. .

Abstract

Background: To investigate the alterations of peripheral lymphocyte subpopulations in ovarian cancer patients compared to benign or borderline counterparts. The possible clinicopathological implications were also evaluated.

Methods: We enrolled 112 treatment-naive ovarian cancer patients, 14 borderline tumor patients and 44 benign tumor patients between 09/2016 and 01/2019. Flow cytometry was used to measure the peripheral lymphocyte subsets consisting of T cells (CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+ and CD8+CD28+), regulatory T cells (Tregs, CD4+CD25+CD127-), natural killer cells (NK cells, CD3-CD56+) and B cells (CD19+).

Results: Most ovarian cancer patients were high-grade serous carcinoma (84.8%), followed by clear cell carcinoma (8.03%). Late-stage tumor (FIGO III + IV) accounted for 82.1%. The study showed that the proportions of peripheral lymphocyte subsets underwent apparent changes in ovarian cancer patients. We observed elevated levels of Treg cells in patients with both ovarian borderline and malignant tumor compared to those with benign tumors, which achieved statistic significance. In contrast, CD3+CD8+ T and CD8+CD28+ T cells were significantly lower in ovarian cancer patients. Interestingly, low level of B cells was correlated to clear cell carcinoma (P = 0.024), advanced tumor (P = 0.028) and platinum-resistant recurrence (P = 0.014). Regarding the changes of lymphocyte subsets after surgery, CD8+CD28+ T cells had a significant decreasing tendency (P = 0.007) while B cells were the opposite (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Ovarian cancer patients have altered circulating lymphocyte profile (elevated Treg cell, depressed CD3+CD8+ T and CD8+CD28+ T cells). Low level of B cells might be related to disease aggressiveness, and it recovered after the removal of tumor, which merits further study.

Keywords: Flow cytometry; Lymphocyte; Ovarian Neoplasms; Subpopulation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic of patients included in the present study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Comparisons of circulating lymphocyte subsets in different populations (Ovarian benign tumor Vs. borderline tumor Vs. malignant tumor). Abbreviations: NS = not significant; *, P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Associations between B cell and clinicopathological features. Abbreviations: HGSC = High-Grade Serous Carcinoma; CCC = Clear Cell Carcinoma
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Changes in peripheral lymphocyte distributions in 98 ovarian cancer patients after upfront surgery. Abbreviations: Before = before surgery; After = after surgery
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Zhang L, Conejo-Garcia JR, Katsaros D, Gimotty PA, Massobrio M, Regnani G, et al. Intratumoral T cells, recurrence, and survival in epithelial ovarian cancer. N Engl J Med. 2003;348:203–213. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa020177. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sato E, Olson SH, Ahn J, Bundy B, Nishikawa H, Qian F, et al. Intraepithelial CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and a high CD8+/regulatory T cell ratio are associated with favorable prognosis in ovarian cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2005;102:18538–18543. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0509182102. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wouters MC, Komdeur FL, Workel HH, Klip HG, Plat A, Kooi NM, et al. Treatment regimen, surgical outcome, and t-cell differentiation influence prognostic benefit of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2016;22:714–724. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-15-1617. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hwang WT, Adams SF, Tahirovic E, Hagemann IS, Coukos G. Prognostic significance of tumor-infiltrating T cells in ovarian cancer: a meta-analysis. Gynecol Oncol. 2012;124:192–198. doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2011.09.039. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Turner TB, Buchsbaum DJ, Straughn JM, Jr, Randall TD, Arend RC. Ovarian cancer and the immune system - the role of targeted therapies. Gynecol Oncol. 2016;142:349–356. doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2016.05.007. - DOI - PubMed