gms | German Medical Science

78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2007, Munich

Tumor-reactive T-cells in the peripheral blood and differential T-cell infiltration of the tumor in patients with HNSCC

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author Gerhard Dyckhoff - Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University clinic of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • author Susanna Pfannenstiel - Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University clinic of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • author Yvonne Ziouta - German cancer research center, Heidelberg, Germany
  • author Philipp Beckhove - German cancer research center, Heidelberg, Germany
  • author Christel Herold-Mende - Department of Neurosurgery, University clinic of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • author Peter Plinkert - Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University clinic of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Munich, 16.-20.05.2007. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2007. Doc07hno067

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hno2007/07hno067.shtml

Published: August 8, 2007

© 2007 Dyckhoff et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Tumor infiltration by CD 8 T-cells can lead to tumor cell apoptosis and necrosis. Regulatory CD 4 T-cells however can suppress cellular anti-tumor immune response. The relation to tumor reactive T-cells in the peripheral blood of patients with HNSCC is still unclear.

In 66 patients with HNSCC T-cells were isolated preoperatively from the peripheral blood and tested for tumor reactivity by Interferon-gamma-ELISPOT assay since 2000. The findings were correlated as well with the tumor infiltration by CD3, CD4 and CD8 T-cells assessed by immunohistochemistry as the clinical outcome.

As to CD3 and CD8 T-cell infiltration there was no significant difference for patients with (PB+) and without (PB-) tumor reactive T-cells in the peripheral blood. As to CD4 cells, however, there were significantly less cells for PB+ (9 [± 10]) in comparison to PB- (57 [±54] (p=0.04)). The CD4/CD8 ratio was significantly lower for PB+ than for PB- (p<0.05). For patients with UICC stage IV (n=46) there was a progression free survival time (regarding a period of observation of 2 months to 5 years) of 73% for PB+ in comparison to 59% for PB- (statistically not significant).

Patients with spontaneous tumor reactive T-cells in the peripheral blood show a significantly more favourable ratio of CD8 killer cells to CD4 T-cells and a lower rate of relapse. In case these results can be confirmed in a greater number of patients tumor reactive T-cells might be a favourable prognostic marker in patients with HNSCC. An effective immunotherapy may be reached by enhancing the natural tumor immunicity by inhibition of regulatory CD4 T-cells and/or activation of CD8 killer cells.