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Intratumoural FOXP3-positive regulatory T cells are associated with adverse prognosis in radically resected gastric cancer

2008; Elsevier BV; Volume: 44; Issue: 13 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.ejca.2008.05.017

1879-0852

Giuseppe Perrone, Pier Adelchi Ruffini, Vincenzo Catalano, Cathie Spino, Daniele Santini, Pietro Muretto, Chiara Spoto, C. Zingaretti, Valerio Sisti, Paolo Alessandroni, Paolo Giordani, Andrea Cicetti, S D'Emidio, S. Morini, Annamaria Ruzzo, Mauro Magnani, Giuseppe Tonini, Carla Rabitti, Francesco Graziano,

T-cell and B-cell Immunology

We investigated the clinical significance of tumour-infiltrating FOXP3-positive regulatory T cells (Tregs) in radically resected (R0) gastric cancer. From a single-institution database, tumors of 110 patients who underwent R0 resection for stage II-III disease were studied for FOXP3-positive Tregs by immunohistochemistry. The observed median number of FOXP3-positive Tregs was used as the cut-point in analyses ( or=6 count). Tregs were significantly higher in gastric carcinomas than in normal tissue (P = 0.0001). Tregs count >or=6 was significantly associated with vascular/lymphatic/perineural invasion (VELIPI) in the tumour (P = 0.03). Multivariate analysis showed association between adverse relapse-free survival and grading 3, stage III, VELIPI and Tregs count >or=6 (P = 0.02). Adverse overall survival was associated with grading 3, stage III, VELIPI and Tregs count >or=6 (P = 0.006). FOXP3-positive Tregs may be a novel marker for identifying high-risk gastric cancer patients. Present findings deserve additional investigation as Tregs may also represent an innovative therapeutic target.