PD-1 Expression Status on CD8+ Tumour Infiltrating Lymphocytes Associates With Survival in Cervical Cancer

• Published in: Frontiers in oncology Vol. 11; p. 678758
• Main Authors: Fan, Peiwen, Li, Xi, Feng, Yaning, Cai, Hongchao, Dong, Danning, Peng, Yanchun, Yao, Xuan, Guo, Yuping, Ma, Miaomiao, Dong, Tao, Wang, Ruozheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 04.06.2021
• Subjects: cellular diagnosis; cervical cancer; HPV – human papillomavirus; Oncology; PD-1; survial analysis; cellular diagnosis; survial analysis; PD-1; cervical cancer; HPV – human papillomavirus
• ISSN: 2234-943X; 2234-943X
• DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2021.678758

Despite the expansion of PD-1 checkpoint blockade to multiple types of cancer, whether the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) expression status on CD8+ tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) could be a prognostic factor in cervical cancer is still unclear. In this study, we performed phenotypic analysis of PD-1 expression on CD8+ TILs by flow cytometry from 47 treatment-naïve cervical cancer patients. With a median follow-up of 26.1 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 24-28.2 months), we then linked the quantitative cellular expression results to progression-free survival and overall survival. Based on the intensity of PD-1 expression, we further categorised the cervical cancer patients into PD-1 expressers (29.8%, 14/47) and PD-1 expressers (70.2%, 33/47). Multivariate analysis revealed that PD-1 expressers are correlated with early recurrence (HR, 5.91; 95% CI, 1.03-33.82; P= 0.046). Univariate analysis also demonstrated that PD-1 expressers are associated with poor overall survival in cervical cancer (HR, 5.365; 95% CI, 1.55-18.6; P=0.008). Moreover, our study also demonstrated that CD8+/CD4+ TIL ratio and HPV infection status are risk factors for early relapse and mortality in cervical cancer patients. In conclusion, this study confirms that PD-1 expression status is an independent prognostic factor for progression free survival in cervical cancer. These findings could be important in predicting the relapse of cervical cancer as a cellular diagnosis method and could be important knowledge for the selection of prospective PD-1 blockade candidates.