Orchestration and prognostic significance of immune checkpoints in the microenvironment of primary and metastatic renal cell cancer

NA Giraldo, E Becht, F Pages, G Skliris, V Verkarre… - Clinical Cancer …, 2015 - AACR
NA Giraldo, E Becht, F Pages, G Skliris, V Verkarre, Y Vano, A Mejean, N Saint-Aubert…
Clinical Cancer Research, 2015AACR
Purpose: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) has shown durable responses to
checkpoint blockade therapies. However, important gaps persist in the understanding of its
immune microenvironment. This study aims to investigate the expression and prognostic
significance of immune checkpoints in primary and metastatic ccRCC, in relation with mature
dendritic cells (DC) and T-cell densities. Experimental Design: We investigated the
infiltration and the localization of CD8+ T cells and mature DC, and the expression of …
Abstract
Purpose: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) has shown durable responses to checkpoint blockade therapies. However, important gaps persist in the understanding of its immune microenvironment. This study aims to investigate the expression and prognostic significance of immune checkpoints in primary and metastatic ccRCC, in relation with mature dendritic cells (DC) and T-cell densities.
Experimental Design: We investigated the infiltration and the localization of CD8+ T cells and mature DC, and the expression of immune checkpoints (PD-1, LAG-3, PD-L1, and PD-L2) in relation with prognosis, in 135 primary ccRCC tumors and 51 ccRCC lung metastases. RNA expression data for 496 primary ccRCC samples were used as confirmatory cohort.
Results: We identify two groups of tumors with extensive CD8+ T-cell infiltrates. One group, characterized by high expression of immune checkpoints in the absence of fully functional mature DC, is associated with increased risk of disease progression. The second group, characterized by low expression of immune checkpoints and localization of mature DC in peritumoral immune aggregates (tertiary lymphoid structures), is associated with good prognosis.
Conclusions: The expression of the immune checkpoints and the localization of DC in the tumor microenvironment modulate the clinical impact of CD8+ T cells in ccRCC. Clin Cancer Res; 21(13); 3031–40. ©2015 AACR.
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