CD25 + FOXP3 + CD45RA - regulatory T-cell infiltration as a prognostic biomarker for endometrial carcinoma

• Published in: BMC cancer Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 1100 - 13
• Main Authors: Suto, Asami, Minaguchi, Takeo, Qi, Nan, Fujieda, Kaoru, Itagaki, Hiroya, Tenjimbayashi, Yuri, Shikama, Ayumi, Tasaka, Nobutaka, Akiyama, Azusa, Nakao, Sari, Nakahashi-Oda, Chigusa, Kobayashi, Yusuke, Shibuya, Akira, Satoh, Toyomi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 04.09.2024; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Angiogenesis; Antibodies; Antigens; Bioinformatics; Biomarkers; Biomarkers, Tumor - metabolism; Cancer; Carcinoma; CD25; CD25 antigen; CD45RA; CD45RA antigen; CD8 antigen; Chemotherapy; CTLA-4 Antigen - metabolism; CTLA-4 protein; Drug therapy; Endometrial cancer; Endometrial carcinoma; Endometrial Neoplasms - genetics; Endometrial Neoplasms - immunology; Endometrial Neoplasms - mortality; Endometrial Neoplasms - pathology; Endometrium; Female; Fluorescent antibody technique; Forkhead Transcription Factors - genetics; Forkhead Transcription Factors - metabolism; FOXP3; Foxp3 protein; Genetic aspects; Health aspects; Humans; Immunity (Disease); Immunofluorescence; Immunotherapy; Infiltration; Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit - metabolism; Ipilimumab; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Kinases; Leukocyte Common Antigens - metabolism; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating - immunology; Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating - metabolism; Mediation; Medical prognosis; Metastases; Middle Aged; mRNA; Multivariate analysis; Myometrium; Patients; Physiological aspects; Prognosis; RNA; Software; Suppressor cells; Survival; T cell receptors; T cells; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory - immunology; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory - metabolism; Treg cell; Tumors; Uterine cancer; Japan; United States > US; CD45RA; CD25; Endometrial carcinoma; FOXP3; Survival; Treg cell
• ISSN: 1471-2407; 1471-2407
• DOI: 10.1186/s12885-024-12851-0

Regulatory T (Treg) cells reportedly play crucial roles in tumor angiogenesis as well as antitumor immunity. In order to explore their therapeutic potential, we investigated the precise prognostic impact of Treg markers in endometrial carcinoma. We performed multiplexed immunofluorescence and quantitative image analyses of CD25, FOXP3, CTLA4, and CD45RA in tumor specimens from 176 consecutive patients treated at our institution for primary endometrial carcinomas. Bioinformatics analyses were further conducted to corroborate the findings. High CD25 , FOXP3 , and CD25 FOXP3 CD45RA stromal cell counts correlated with better overall survival (OS) (p = 0.00019, 0.028 and 0.0012) and MSI-high (p = 0.015, 0.016 and 0.047). High CD45RA stromal cell count was associated with superficial myometrial invasion (p = 0.0038). Bioinformatics survival analysis by Kaplan-Meier plotter showed that high CD25, FOXP3, CTLA4, and CD45RA mRNA expressions correlated with better OS (p = 0.046, 0.00042, 0.000044, and 0.0022). Univariate and multivariate analyses with various clinicopathologic prognostic factors indicated that high CD25 or CD25 FOXP3 CD45RA stromal cell count was significant and independent for favorable OS (p = 0.0053 and 0.0015). We subsequently analyzed the correlations between the multiplexed immunofluorescence results and treatment-free interval (TFI) after primary chemotherapy in recurrent cases, finding no significant associations. Further analysis revealed that high ratio of CD25 : CD8 cell count or CD25 FOXP3 CD45RA : CD8 cell count correlated with longer TFI (p = 0.021 and 0.021). The current observations suggest that the balance between CD25 or CD25 FOXP3 CD45RA cells and CD8 cells, corresponding to promoting or inhibiting effect on tumor angiogenesis, affect tumor chemosensitivity leading to prognostic significance. CD25 FOXP3 CD45RA effector Treg tumor infiltration may serve as a useful prognostic biomarker and a potential target for immunotherapeutic manipulation of tumor chemosensitivity by novel management for advanced/recurrent endometrial carcinomas.