Eur Urol Oncol: Immune milieu and differentiation signatures predict bladder cancer outcome

Bladder cancer (BC) is a highly molecularly heterogeneous disease, and the phenotype of each cancer cell is influenced by multiple cancer cell endogenous and exogenous features that may drive disease development and treatment resistance
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Improved risk assessment for BC patients is important for optimizing clinical management

It was determined whether immune cell subsets and cancer cell intrinsic characteristics are associated with BC outcome and response to first-line chemotherapy

The researchers used multiplex immunofluorescence (CD3, CD8, FOXP3, CD20, CD68, CD163 and MHC-I) and immunohistochemistry (pancytokeratin, CK5/6, GATA3, PD-1 and PD-L1) on 785 BC patients ( Ta-T4b) primary tumor tissue was examined, and the staining results of the cancerous and stromal portions of the tumor were quantified by digital image analysis
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The primary endpoints of the study were progression-free survival, recurrence-free survival, and response to first-line chemotherapy
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Optimal cut-offs for the investigated markers for each primary endpoint were estimated using the rank-of-choice statistic and ROC, and Cox regression analysis was used for time-event analysis

Figure 1 Immune subpopulations and immune evasion markers associated with stage and differentiation characteristics

Figure 1 Immune subpopulations and immune evasion markers associated with stage and differentiation characteristics

The results showed that several immune subgroups were independently associated with clinical outcomes
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In particular, high expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 was independently associated with an increased risk of recurrence and progression in non-muscle-invasive tumors, but with a lower risk of recurrence in muscle-invasive tumors

Taken together, immune cell subsets and cancer cell intrinsic characteristics are associated with different clinical outcomes in BC
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Immune cells play an important role in cancer development and treatment outcomes

Immune cell subsets and cancer cell intrinsic characteristics are associated with different clinical outcomes of BC

Original source:

Original source:

Ann Taber, Frederik Prip, Philippe Lamy et al.

Ann Taber, Frederik Prip, Philippe Lamy et al.
Immune Contexture and Differentiation Features Predict Outcome in Bladder Cancer.
Eur Urol Oncol.
Feb 2022.
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