Immunosuppressive Phenotype of Esophagus Tumors Stroma

Background. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) contribute significantly to the development of immunosuppressive properties of a tumor. In this study, we performed immunohistochemical analysis of immune cells of esophageal tumors stroma. Methods. Paraffin-embedded tissue specimens from 48 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients were retrospectively collected for immunohistochemical analysis of stromal cells. For staining of macrophages, CD68, CD163, CD206, PU.1, and iNOS were used. For T cell detection, CD8, CD3, and FOXP3 were used. Also, we performed staining for PD-L1 that can be expressed on TAMs and tumor cells. Clinicopathological and survival data were collected and analyzed using the χ2 and Fisher exact tests, Kaplan–Meier curves, and the log-rank test. The correlation analysis was performed with Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Results. We found that FOXP3 expression was associated with age (p=0.042) and iNOS expression was associated with the disease stage (p=0.044). In addition, FOXP3 and CD163 appeared to be markers of good prognosis (HR=0.4420, p=0.0325, and HR=0.4447, p=0.0456, respectively). Significant association between PU.1+ and CD68+ macrophages (r=0.833; p≤0.001) and between PU.1+ and CD163+ macrophages (r=0.500; p≤0.001) was established; positive association between PU.1 and CD206 expression was also observed (r=0.250; p=0.043). Conclusions. Large amounts of CD163+ macrophages and FOXP3+ Т cells appear to be markers of good prognosis of ESCC. The number of PU.1+ macrophages strongly correlates with the number of CD68+ macrophages; therefore, usage of PU.1 as a potential macrophage marker can be recommended for esophageal tumors

CHID1 Is a Novel Prognostic Marker of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

There is an urgent need for identification of new prognostic markers and therapeutic targets for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we evaluated immune cells markers in 100 NSCLC specimens. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed no prognostic value for the markers studied, except CD163 and CD206. At the same time, macrophage markers iNOS and CHID1 were found to be expressed in tumor cells and associated with prognosis. We showed that high iNOS expression is a marker of favorable prognosis for squamous cell lung carcinoma (SCC), and NSCLC in general. Similarly, high CHID1 expression is a marker of good prognosis in adenocarcinoma and in NSCLC in general. Analysis of prognostic significance of a high CHID1/iNOS expression combination showed favorable prognosis with 20 months overall survival of patients from the low CHID1/iNOS expression group. For the first time, we demonstrated that CHID1 can be expressed by NSCLC cells and its high expression is a marker of good prognosis for adenocarcinoma and NSCLC in general. At the same time, high expression of iNOS in tumor cells is a marker of good prognosis in SCC. When used in combination, CHID1 and iNOS show a very good prognostic capacity for NSCLC. We suggest that in the case of lung cancer, tumor-associated macrophages are likely ineffective as a therapeutic target. At the same time, macrophage markers expressed by tumor cells may be considered as targets for anti-tumor therapy or, as in the case of CHID1, as potential anti-tumor agents