Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1517968
This article is part of the Research Topic Regulators of the Immune-Tumor Microenvironment: A New Frontier for Cancer Immunotherapy View all 16 articles

Prognostic value of immunosuppression scores in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a multicenter study

Provisionally accepted
Shao-Jun Xu Shao-Jun Xu 1Yun-Fan Luo Yun-Fan Luo 2Jin Huang Jin Huang 1Jia-Hua Tu Jia-Hua Tu 3Chao Chen Chao Chen 2Yan-Ming Shen Yan-Ming Shen 2Zhao-Min Sun Zhao-Min Sun 2Shu-Chen Chen Shu-Chen Chen 1*
  • 1 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Fuzhou, China
  • 2 Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Fuzhou, China
  • 3 The First Hospital of Putian City, Putian, Fujian Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The prognostic impact of human leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E) expression and the proportion of natural killer (NK) cells in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) was investigated.Methods: This study retrospectively evaluated 397 ESCC patients across two centers.The cumulative incidence of recurrence (CIR) and the incidence of tumor-related death (CID) were analyzed in various groups. An immunosuppression score (ISS) was developed based on HLA-E expression and NK cell proportion. Differences between groups were adjusted using inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW). The factors influencing cancer-specific survival (CSS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were also examined.Patients with low HLA-E expression had significantly higher five-year CIR and CID compared to those with high expression (CIR: 20.7% vs. 45.1%, CID: 19.3% vs. 40.1%; p< 0.001). Similarly, NK cell-positive patients had significantly better fiveyear CIR and CID than NK cell-negative patients (CIR: 16.3% vs. 59.6%, CID: 13.9% vs. 53.7%; p < 0.001). The Sankey diagram indicated that the low ISS group had a lower recurrence and tumor-related mortality rate (p < 0.05). After IPTW adjustment, the low ISS group showed improved five-year RFS (80.1% vs. 35.4%, p < 0.001) and five-year CSS (82.3% vs. 42.5%, p < 0.001) compared to the high ISS group.Conclusions: ESCC with different ISS statuses represents two distinct biological subtypes, underscoring the need for personalized treatment strategies tailored to varying tumor behaviors.

    Keywords: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC), human leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E), natural killer (NK) cells, Inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW), prognosis

    Received: 27 Oct 2024; Accepted: 13 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xu, Luo, Huang, Tu, Chen, Shen, Sun and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shu-Chen Chen, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Fuzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.