VISTA expression on tumor-infiltrating inflammatory cells in primary cutaneous melanoma correlates with poor disease-specific survival

In this study, 85 primary melanoma specimens were selected from pathology tissue archives and immunohistochemically stained for CD3, PD-1, PD-L1, and VISTA. Pearson ’s correlation coefficients identified associations in expression between VISTA and myeloid infiltrate (r = 0.28,p = 0.009) and the density of PD-1+ inflammatory cells (r = 0.31,p = 0.005). The presence of VISTA was associated with a significantly worse disease-specific survival in univariate analysis (hazard ratio = 3.57,p = 0.005) and multivariate analysis (hazard ratio = 3.02,p = 0.02). Our findings show that VISTA expression is an independent negative prognostic factor in primary cutaneous melanoma and suggests its potential as an adjuvant immunotherapeutic intervention in the future.
Source: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research