FOXP3+ Cell Density in Primary Tumor Has No Prognostic Impact in Patients with Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma

Abstract

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) have been implicated as inhibitors of antitumor immune reactions. However, data on the relevance of their prevalence at tumor sites in influencing disease outcome are controversial. The aim of our study was to investigate the role in tumor progression and the prognostic impact of the density of lymphocytes expressing FOXP3, a transcription factor expressed predominantly by CD4 + CD25 + Tregs, in primary cutaneous melanoma. We examined the infiltration of FOXP3 + cells by immunohistochemistry in tumor samples from 97 patients and evaluated in relation to patient and tumor parameters. The degree of infiltration by FOXP3 + cells did not show correlation with the thickness of melanomas. Moreover, no associations were found with metastasis formation during the 5-year follow-up period, patient survival, or any other clinicopathologic parameters studied. These results suggest that the presence of FOXP3 + lymphocytes in primary tumors is not of prognostic importance in human cutaneous melanoma.

FoxP3 and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase immunoreactivity in sentinel nodes from melanoma patients

“…Staining for CD3 and CD4 was also initially performed to confirm that the FoxP3+ cells represented T cells, rather than another FoxP3+ cell type. FoxP3 positivity alone has previously been used as the most specific marker of Tregs [15,[24][25][26].…”

CD226 opposes TIGIT to disrupt Tregs in melanoma

“…In preclinical cancer models, Tregs potentially abrogate T cell responses to tumors (2). In humans, Tregs are highly enriched in many solid tumors, including primary melanoma (3,4), invaded lymph nodes (5), and metastatic melanoma (MM) (4)(5)(6). High-frequency Tregs correlate with tumor progression and poor survival in many solid tumors, including melanoma (7), and have been associated with poor clinical outcome in melanoma patients (MPs) treated with immunotherapy (8).…”

The Prognostic Value of FoxP3+ Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Cancer: A Critical Review of the Literature

“…In the end, we reviewed 58 studies encompassing 16 different cancer types (Table 1), including bladder (19), breast (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28), cervical (29,30), colorectal (12,(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39), endometrial (40)(41)(42), gastric (14,(43)(44)(45)(46), head and neck (47), hepatocellular (48)(49)(50)(51)(52), lung (53,54), melanoma (55)(56)(57)(58), mesothelial (59), oral (4,(60)(61)(62)(63), ovarian (2,3,…”