Evaluation of CD57+ cells in oral squamous cells carcinoma and their relationship with clinicopathological parameters

Abstract

Introduction: The immune response occurring in the tumor microenvironment is very complex. Surface molecule CD57 can be expressed by natural killer cells and/or activated T lymphocytes, which are key cellular types in the cancer immunity. Objectives: This study investigated CD57 immunoexpression in immune cells of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and verified its association with clinicopathological features. Methods: Paraffin-embedded sections of 45 OSCCs were submitted to morphological and immunohistochemical analysis using anti-CD57 antibody. Relationship between the expression of CD57 and clinicopathological parameters (age, metastasis to regional lymph nodes, clinical stage and histopathological grade of malignancy) was verified by Pearson's Chi square, and Fisher exact statistical tests. Results: The majority (64.4%) of the OSCCs analyzed affected subjects of male gender and over 40 years old (68.9%). There was a significant association between histological grade of malignancy and presence of lymph node metastasis, as well as clinical stage (p<0.05). Conclusions: The results suggest that CD57+ cells immune cells infiltration is a consistent finding in OSCC, regardless of clinicopathological features of these tumors.

Clinical and Histopathological Factors Associated with the Tumoral Expression of TGF-β1, MED15, CD16, and CD57 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…The latter two studies were in contrast to our results, according to which the only significant association existed between CD57 and clinical metastasis of TNM. On the other hand, Lopes et al [ 36 ] evaluated the link between the expression of CD57 with the factors “age, metastasis to regional lymph nodes, clinical stage, and histopathological grade”; they reported CD57 to be associated with none of them. The controversy might be attributed to the use of bivariate statistics, dichotomizing the variables, and different sample types (in terms of the tumor types, tumor progressions, and tumor sizes).…”

“…This methodological difference as well as differences in types and properties of tumors, sample, or statistical analyses might partly explain the dispute. Furthermore, several earlier studies had used bivariable statistics [ 10 , 35 , 36 ], while when assessing the role between prognostic factors and CD57/CD16 expression, we controlled for other prognostic factors (e.g., stage, grade, or size) using multivariable analyses; in this case, the negative effect found between the markers and vascular invasion was independent of those major prognostic factors. In addition, although tumoral CD57 expression can be used as a prognostic factor, it follows a heterogeneous pattern [ 11 ], making it difficult to derive straightforward linear correlations.…”

“…Moreover, the qPCR method is more accurate than other methods such as subjective IHC scorings; thus, given its very high precision and considerable expenditures of the assessments of these four biomarkers, the sample size of 96 genetically-matched tissues can be regarded as large. Earlier studies on a single biomarker had used less accurate methods on sample sizes of around 45 patients [ 10 , 36 , 37 ]. To our knowledge, this was the only qPCR study on these markers.…”