FoxP3 + and IL-17 + cells are correlated with improved prognosis in cervical adenocarcinoma

Abstract Cervical adenocarcinoma comprises approximately 15 % of cervical cancer cases. This histological subtype has different characteristics than cervical squamous cell carcinoma, which may influence disease progression. To study whether the infiltration of T cell subpopulations was correlated with cervical adenocarcinoma patient survival, similar to squamous cell carcinoma, the tumor-infiltrating T cells, Tregs, Th17 cells and IL-17+ cell frequencies were analyzed in a cohort of cervical adenocarcinoma patients (n = 67). Intraepithelial, stromal and total cell frequencies were scored using triple immunofluorescence. The majority of Tregs were present in the tumor stroma, while other T cells and IL-17+ cells infiltrated the tumor epithelium three times more frequently. A high total number of Tregs were significantly correlated with improved disease-specific and disease-free survival (p = 0.010, p = 0.007). Within the tumor epithelium, a high T cell frequency was significantly correlated with improved disease-free survival (p = 0.034). In particular, a low number of both Tregs and IL-17+ cells were correlated with poor disease-specific survival (p = 0.007). A low number of Tregs combined with Th17 cells present were also correlated with poor survival (p = 0.018). An increased number of IL-17+ cells were significantly correlated with the absence of vaso-invasion (p = 0.001), smaller tumor size (p = 0.030) and less infiltration depth (p = ...
Source: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research