Effect of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte subsets on prognosis and susceptibility to interferon therapy in patients with renal cell carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
Immunotherapy effectively treats advanced renal cell carcinoma in only a limited number of patients. However, the predicted prognosis for each patient in relation to immune status and response to immunotherapy remains problematic. We analyzed tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) subsets to determine whether these correlated with the prognoses for the patients and the response to alpha-interferon therapy.


METHODS
TIL subsets from resected specimens of 79 patients were analyzed by two-color flow cytometry and then compared with the patients' long-term clinical courses and responses to interferon therapy.


RESULTS
In patients with stages III and IV, an increased infiltration of CD4+ cells and decreased CD8+ cells constituted a fair prognostic factor. In 17 patients with metastatic lesions, 8 of 10 patients who had disease progression after interferon therapy showed an increase in CD8+ cells above 25%, whereas 2 responders and 5 patients who had stable disease showed infiltration of CD8+ cells below 25%.


CONCLUSIONS
The TIL subset is a prognostic factor for advanced renal cell carcinoma, and its analysis provides a method to predict the susceptibility to interferon therapy.
Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan. tigaras@med.m.chiba-u.ac.jp
Tatsuo
T
Igarashi
Hidenori
H
Takahashi
Toyofusa
T
Tobe
Hiroyoshi
H
Suzuki
Kenichi
K
Mizoguchi
Hiro-omi
HO
Nakatsu
Haruo
H
Ito
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007372:Interferons / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D007372:Interferons