title: Prognostic importance of tumour-infiltrating memory T cells in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: Memory T cells survive for many months and years and are critically important for host defence in humans. In tumour immunity, they have been also suggested to play a significant role in tumour progression and metastasis. However, the role of memory T cells in actual human cancer remains largely unknown. In this study, the clinical importance of tumour-infiltrating CD45RO(+) memory T cells was investigated in human oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). CD45RO(+) T cells were evaluated by immunohistochemistry in primary OSCC tumours from 105 patients. Patients were classified into two groups as CD45RO(+hi) or CD45RO(+lo) based on the number of cells stained positively for CD45RO. No significant difference was observed between CD45RO status and several clinicopathological prognostic factors. However, the postoperative overall and disease-free survival for CD45RO(+hi) patients was significantly better than for CD45RO(+lo) patients. Furthermore, there were significant correlations of CD45RO status in the primary tumour with postoperative lymph node and pulmonary recurrence, suggesting that memory T cells may control postoperative metastatic recurrence. Most importantly, CD45RO(+) memory T cell status has a significant prognostic value for OSCC independently of conventional tumour-node-metastasis (TNM) classification. Our study may provide a rationale for developing a novel immunotherapy in intentional induction of memory T cells for the treatment of oesophageal cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Enomoto
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sho
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wakatsuki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takayama
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akahori
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Migita
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakajima
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D017493:Leukocyte Common Antigens / Q000378:metabolism; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012008:Recurrence; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D017493:Leukocyte Common Antigens