TY - JOUR
T1 - Reliable evaluation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in pancreatic cancer tissue biopsies
AU - Ino, Yoshinori
AU - Oguro, Seiji
AU - Yamazaki-Itoh, Rie
AU - Hori, Shutaro
AU - Shimada, Kazuaki
AU - Hiraoka, Nobuyoshi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (NH), and the National Cancer Center Research and Development Fund (NH).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Ino et al.
PY - 2019/2/1
Y1 - 2019/2/1
N2 - Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) represent cancer microenvironment. We previously reported TILs was prognosticators in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients by immunohistochemically measuring them in surgically-resected tissues. The aim of this study was to assess how best to evaluate TILs in PDAC tissue biopsies. First, we showed expression of CD3, CD4, or CD8 genes in PDAC tissue measured by quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) was prognostic using 241 surgically-resected specimens. We assessed whether the TILs in biopsied tissues can be effectively evaluated by comparing between immunohistochemistry and RT-qPCR. As a study model, we sampled twenty biopsies from surgically-resected PDAC specimen (n = 17). We investigated the variation levels of TILs in the different biopsies from the same specimen and evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The ICC value was 0.58 for CD3, 0.61 for CD4, and 0.46 for CD8, respectively; these ICC values meant correlations of "moderate" to "substantial" levels. To reach "near perfect", 3, 3, and 5 times biopsies were necessary for CD3, CD4, and CD8, respectively. When ICC values of immunolabeled TILs were of "low", ≥6 times biopsies were necessary to reach "moderate" levels. We found that TILs measured by RT-qPCR and repeated sampling increased reliability in TILs detected from biopsied PDAC tissues.
AB - Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) represent cancer microenvironment. We previously reported TILs was prognosticators in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients by immunohistochemically measuring them in surgically-resected tissues. The aim of this study was to assess how best to evaluate TILs in PDAC tissue biopsies. First, we showed expression of CD3, CD4, or CD8 genes in PDAC tissue measured by quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) was prognostic using 241 surgically-resected specimens. We assessed whether the TILs in biopsied tissues can be effectively evaluated by comparing between immunohistochemistry and RT-qPCR. As a study model, we sampled twenty biopsies from surgically-resected PDAC specimen (n = 17). We investigated the variation levels of TILs in the different biopsies from the same specimen and evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The ICC value was 0.58 for CD3, 0.61 for CD4, and 0.46 for CD8, respectively; these ICC values meant correlations of "moderate" to "substantial" levels. To reach "near perfect", 3, 3, and 5 times biopsies were necessary for CD3, CD4, and CD8, respectively. When ICC values of immunolabeled TILs were of "low", ≥6 times biopsies were necessary to reach "moderate" levels. We found that TILs measured by RT-qPCR and repeated sampling increased reliability in TILs detected from biopsied PDAC tissues.
KW - Biopsy
KW - Intraclass correlation coefficient
KW - Pancreatic cancer
KW - Quantitative RT-PCR
KW - Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes
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U2 - 10.18632/oncotarget.26646
DO - 10.18632/oncotarget.26646
M3 - Article
C2 - 30800224
AN - SCOPUS:85061050378
SN - 1949-2553
VL - 10
SP - 1149
EP - 1159
JO - Oncotarget
JF - Oncotarget
IS - 10
ER -