Abstract
Objective
Tumor immune response has been suggested as an important indicator of cancer prognosis. This study was initiated to investigate the association between T lymphocytes and the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).
Methods
Included in this study were 129 CRC patients who received surgical treatment in Henan Provincial People’s Hospital from January 2003 to January 2014. The level of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes in tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Survival analysis was conducted by the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model.
Results
IHC staining showed that CD8+ T lymphocyte infiltration was high in 88 cases and low in 41 cases, while CD4+ T lymphocyte infiltration was high in 66 cases and low in 63 cases. The level of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes in CRC tissue was closely related to TNM stage and tumor invasion (p < 0.05). Follow-up analysis showed that both disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were better in patients with a high level of CD8+ and CD4 + CD8+ than those in patients with a low level (p < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that TNM stage, lymph node, CD8+ and CD4+ CD8+ were independent risk factors for DFS and OS (p < 0.05).
Conclusion
High level of CD8+ and CD4+ CD8+ may prove to be a potential predictor of better prognosis of CRC patients.
Acknowledgments
Yong Tao came up with the hypothesis and designed the whole set of the program. Ya Xie collected the clinical data of selected patients and wrote the article. The authors would like to thank the members of Henan Provincial People’s Hospital for collecting the clinical follow-up data.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).