Peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets predict the efficacy of TACE with or without PD-1 inhibitors in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: a prospective clinical study.
Front Immunol
; 15: 1325330, 2024.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38404585
ABSTRACT
Background:
Although peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets, particularly PD-1+ T cells, are promising prognostic indicators for patients with cancer. However, their clinical significance remains unclear.Methods:
We prospectively enrolled 157 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization combined with or without PD-1 inhibitors. Twenty peripheral lymphocyte subsets and cytokines were analyzed. We analyzed the differences in PD-1+ T cells between patients treated with and without PD-1 inhibitors and their associations with tumor response, survival prognosis, and clinical features.Results:
We found that the baseline CD8+PD-1+ and CD4+PD-1+ T-cell frequencies in patients who had received PD-1 inhibitors were lower than those in patients who had not received PD-1 inhibitors (p < 0.001). In the former patients, there were no differences in PD-1+ T-cell frequencies between the responder and non-responder subgroups (p > 0.05), whereas in the latter patients, the levels of CD8+PD-1+ T cells, CD4+PD-1+ T cells, and CD8+PD-1+/CD4+PD-1+ ratio did not predict tumor response, progression-free survival (PFS), or overall survival (OS) (p>0.05). Furthermore, in multivariate analysis of patients treated with or without PD-1 inhibitors revealed that the levels of CD8+CD38+ T cells (OR = 2.806, p = 0.006) were associated with tumor response, whereas those of CD8+CD28+ T cells (p = 0.038, p = 0.001) and natural killer (NK) cells (p = 0.001, p = 0.027) were associated with PFS and OS. Although, these independent prognostic factors were associated with progressive tumor characteristics (p<0.05), with the exception of CD8+CD28+ T cells, changes in these factors before and after treatment were unassociated with tumor response (p > 0.05).Conclusion:
Circulating CD8+CD38+ T cells, CD8+CD28+ T cells, and NK cells were identified as potential prognostic factors for tumor response and survival in patients with HCC. Contrastingly, although PD-1 inhibitors can effectively block the T cell PD-1 receptor, the baseline PD-1+ T-cell frequencies and changes in the frequency of these cells have limited prognostic value.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Chemoembolization, Therapeutic
/
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular
/
Liver Neoplasms
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Front Immunol
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China