title: Prognostic impact of tumour-associated B cells and plasma cells in oesophageal and gastric adenocarcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While it is well established that the cell-mediated immune response plays an important role in cancer progression and spread, the role of the humoral immune response in this regard has been less studied. According to the existing literature, dense infiltration of B cells or plasma cells appears to correlate mainly with an improved prognosis in several types of cancer, but their prognostic impact in oesophageal and gastric cancer has not yet been described.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemistry was applied on tissue microarrays (TMA) to assess the stromal density of B cells (CD20+) and plasma cells [CD138+ or immunoglobulin kappa C (IGKC+)] in chemo-/radiotherapy-naive tumours from a consecutive cohort of 174 patients with resected oesophageal or gastric adenocarcinoma. Cox proportional hazard's modelling was applied to examine the impact of the investigated markers on overall survival (OS) and time to recurrence (TTR).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In curatively treated patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma, high expression of IGKC was an independent predictor of a prolonged OS [hazard ratio (HR) 0.10; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.02-0.57], and TTR (HR 0.15; 95% CI, 0.03-0.71). In curatively treated patients with gastric adenocarcinoma, high expression of IGKC independently predicted a prolonged OS (HR 0.46; 95% CI, 0.24-0.87) and TTR (HR 0.46; 95% CI, 0.21-0.98). Expression of CD20 was not prognostic, and CD138 expression was only prognostic in unadjusted analysis of TTR in gastric cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate, for the first time, that abundant infiltration of IGKC+ plasma cells independently predicts a prolonged survival in both oesophageal and gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Oncology and Pathology, Lund University, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fristedt
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Oncology and Pathology, Lund University, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borg
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Oncology and Pathology, Lund University, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Charlotta
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hedner
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Oncology and Pathology, Lund University, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jonna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Berntsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Oncology and Pathology, Lund University, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nodin
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Oncology and Pathology, Lund University, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jakob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eberhard
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, Rudbeck Laboratory, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Micke
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Oncology and Pathology, Lund University, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jirström
keywords: Plasma cells; adenocarcinoma; gastric; oesophageal; prognosis