PD-L1 + NEUT, Foxp3 + Treg, and NLR as New Prognostic Marker with Low Survival Benefits Value in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

作者：Lin Zhou, Jing Wang, Shaocheng Lyu, Lichao Pan, Xianjie Shi, Guosheng Du, Qiang He · 发表于：Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1177/15330338211045820 · 被引用次数：19 · 研究领域：Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers、Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis、Immune cells in cancer

Background: This presented study was aimed to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of PD-L1 + Neutrophils (PD-L1 + NEUT) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) based on our previous experience of Foxp3 + Treg in transplantation. Methods: the NLR cutoff value of 1.79 was used to include 136 cases from the 204 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) confirmed by clinical pathology, which were divided into highly-moderately and poorly differentiated HCC groups. The expressions of PD-L1 + NEUT and Foxp3 + Treg in peripheral blood and cancer tissue were detected with flow cytometry, meanwhile, PD-L1 and Foxp3 expressed in carcinoma and para-carcinoma tissues were marked by immunohistochemistry. Survival rates, including overall survival and disease-free survival, were calculated by the Kaplan–Meier curve and evaluated with the log-rank test. Finally, Cox risk regression model was used to analyze the independent risk factors for prognostic survival. Results: The level of PD-L1 + NEUT, Foxp3 + Treg, and NLR in peripheral blood of patients with poorly differentiated HCC were significantly increased (all P < .001). Both PD-L1 + NEUT and NLR were positively correlated with Foxp3 + Treg ( r = 0.479, P = .0017; r = 0.58, P < .0001). The level of PD-L1 + NEUT and Foxp3 + Treg as well as PD-L1 and Foxp3 in cancer tissue and patients with poorly differentiated HCC were obviously increased (all P < .01), respectively. Cox regression analysis indicated that PD-L1 + NEU...