Tianhui Xue, Xiaohuan Zhang, Qianwen Ye, Panhua Li, Yi Hu
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Emerging evidence indicates the importance of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) in predicting the outcomes of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients; however, their prognostic value and correlations with peripheral inflammatory prognostic indices in stage I patients have been less well studied.
Methods: Stage I NSCLC patients were recruited retrospectively; the presence and location of TLSs (peritumoral [pTLSs] and intratumoral [iTLSs]) were determined via hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained slides. Peripheral inflammatory indices, including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), prognostic nutritional index (PNI), and advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI), were obtained and compared among these subgroups. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were tested via Kaplan-Meier analysis, and risk factors for survival were determined via a Cox proportional hazards model.
Results: A total of 24.73% and 92.73% of patients were positive for pTLSs and iTLSs, respectively. The absolute number of iTLSs was significantly greater than that of pTLSs (P < .001). Low preoperative LMR and ALI were detected only in patients with pTLSs but not in those without. Only pTLS was found to be a risk factor for both DFS and OS, and it was independently associated with OS (HR = 3.93, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.16-13.37; P = .028). Accordingly, patients with pTLSs had relatively poor DFS (log rank = 5.46, P = .019) and OS (log rank = 10.48, P = .001) rates.
Conclusions: Among the heterogeneous results concerning the prognostic value of pTLSs and iTLSs in stage I NSCLC, our results for the first time indicated that the presence of pTLSs may predict poor outcomes in these patients and no correlation of iTLSs with the outcomes was validated; however, additional studies with large sample size are needed in future.
期刊介绍:
Clinical Medicine Insights: Oncology is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal that focuses on all aspects of cancer research and treatment, in addition to related genetic, pathophysiological and epidemiological topics. Of particular but not exclusive importance are molecular biology, clinical interventions, controlled trials, therapeutics, pharmacology and drug delivery, and techniques of cancer surgery. The journal welcomes unsolicited article proposals.