title: Immune parameters in the prognosis and therapy monitoring of cutaneous melanoma patients: experience, role, and limitations.
abstract: Cutaneous melanoma is an immune-dependent aggressive tumour. Up to our knowledge, there are no reports regarding immune parameters monitoring in longitudinal followup of melanoma patients. We report a followup for 36 months of the immune parameters of patients diagnosed in stages I-IV. The circulatory immune parameters comprised presurgery and postsurgery immune circulating peripheral cells and circulating intercommunicating cytokines. Based on our analysis, the prototype of the intratumor inflammatory infiltrate in a melanoma with good prognosis is composed of numerous T cells CD3+, few or even absent B cells CD20+, few or absent plasma cells CD138+, and present Langerhans cells CD1a+ or langerin+. Regarding circulatory immune cells, a marker that correlates with stage is CD4+/CD8+ ratio, and its decrease clearly indicates a worse prognosis of the disease. Moreover, even in advanced stages, patients that have an increased overall survival rate prove the increase of this ratio. The decrease in the circulating B lymphocytes with stage is balanced by an increase in circulating NK cells, a phenomenon observed in stage III. Out of all the tested cytokines in the followup, IL-6 level correlated with the patient's survival, while in our study, IL-8, IL-10, and IL-12 did not correlate statistically in a significant way with overall survival, or relapse-free survival.
authors.affiliation: Immunobiology Laboratory, "Victor Babes" National Institute of Pathology, 99-101 Splaiul Independentei, 050096 Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neagu
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Constantin
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zurac
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000378:metabolism; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002452:Cell Count; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D007801:Langerhans Cells / Q000473:pathology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000097:blood / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012878:Skin Neoplasms; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult; D000096142:Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D016207:Cytokines