Infiltration of CD8+ T cells in Non-Small Cell
Lung Cancer is Associated with Dedifferentiation
of Cancer Cells, but not with Prognosis
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MASUKO MORI, HARUO OHTANI,1 YOSHITAKA NAITO,1 MOTOYASU SAGAWA,2 MASAMI SATO,2 SHIGEFUMI FUJIMURA2 and HIROSHI NAGURA1
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Department of Pathology, 2Department of Thoracic Surgery, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8575, 1Department of Pathology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai 980-8574
CD8+ T cells infiltrating within cancer cell nests in human colorectal cancer were associated with a favorable patients' survival, suggesting the presence of anti-tumor immunity. The present study was designed to examine this concept in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by a retrospective analysis of 128 surgically resected cases. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that the number of CD8+ T cells within cancer cell nests in NSCLC was related to the histological subtype (large cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma>adenocarcinoma) and the degree of dedifferentiation (undifferentiated type>differentiated type). In contrast to colorectal cancer, the number of CD8+ T cells in NSCLC had no statistically significant impact on the patients' survival. The present study demonstrated that the degree of infiltration of CD8+ T cells within cancer cell nests is dependent on the dedifferentiation of cancer cells in NSCLC, which could be one of the important aspects for the study of tumor immunity.
Key words---
tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes; non-small cell lung cancer; CD8; immunohistochemistry
© 2000 Tohoku University Medical Press
Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2000, 191, 113-118
Present address for Dr. Masuko Mori, Fukujuji Medical Center, 2-3-1 Nakayama-Yoshinari, Sendai 989-3203, Japan.
For reprints request, contact M.Mori at the present address.
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