Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs) in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Heterogeneity, Prognostic Impact, and Relationship with Immune Checkpoints

Abstract

Epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC) are often diagnosed at an advanced stage with carcinomatosis and a poor prognosis. First-line treatment is based on a chemotherapy regimen combining a platinum-based drug and a taxane-based drug along with surgery. More than half of the patients will have concern about a recurrence. To improve the outcomes, new therapeutics are needed, and diverse strategies, such as immunotherapy, are currently being tested in EOC. To better understand the global immune contexture in EOC, several studies have been performed to decipher the landscape of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). CD8+ TILs are usually considered effective antitumor immune effectors that immune checkpoint inhibitors can potentially activate to reject tumor cells. To synthesize the knowledge of TILs in EOC, we conducted a review of studies published in MEDLINE or EMBASE in the last 10 years according to the PRISMA guidelines. The description and role of TILs in EOC prognosis are reviewed from the published data. The links between TILs, DNA repair deficiency, and ICs have been studied. Finally, this review describes the role of TILs in future immunotherapy for EOC.

Spatial transcriptome reveals histology-correlated immune signature learnt by deep learning attention mechanism on H&E–stained images for ovarian cancer prognosis

“…With histological images, ovarian cancer can be separated into groups with different risk by identifying TILs (35). Different subtypes of TILs in ovarian cancer were also found to differentially affect the progression of ovarian cancer (36,37). From the pathway enrichment results in this study together with spatial transcriptome, we did a novel analysis to determine their relationship.…”

Evaluation of Immune Infiltrates in Ovarian Endometriosis and Endometriosis-Associated Ovarian Cancer: Relationship with Histological and Clinical Features

“…In addition, in a recent article involving 1078 EOC and 545 CCOC, a significant association was observed for diseasespecific survival in EOC in a univariable analysis [38]. However, the largest series analyzing the relationship between TILs and survival included HGSOC [39]. These studies evaluated different types of infiltrating T-cells.…”

Tumor cell cytoplasmic metallothionein expression associates with differential tumor immunogenicity and prognostic outcome in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma

“…For ovarian cancer, it has been shown that the presence of TILs positively correlates with survival (70,71). On the other hand, immunosuppressive factors also play a significant role in EOC.…”