There is increasing evidence that T‐cell receptor (TCR) repertoire diversity can be a predictive biomarker of immune responses in cancer patients. However, the characteristics of the T‐cell repertoire together with its prognostic significance in melanoma patients and impact on disease progression remain unknown. We investigated the combinatorial TCR repertoire diversity by semi‐quantitative multi‐N‐plex PCR in peripheral blood samples from 44 melanoma patients together with seven matched metastatic lymph nodes and explored its potential predictive value on clinical prognosis. The diversity was quantified by calculating both richness (number of different specificities) and evenness (relative abundance of the different specificities). Our results revealed that a higher TCR repertoire diversity in blood of patients was associated with a longer PFS, while divpenia (low repertoire diversity) was linked with poor prognosis. The diversity was significantly higher in patients undergoing late relapse and long survival compared to patients who progressed rapidly. Interestingly, the TCR repertoire diversity in tumor may have a potential prognostic value. Thus, our study highlights that the TCR repertoire diversity is a prognostic indicator of clinical outcome in patients with melanoma.

中文翻译：

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T细胞受体多样性作为黑色素瘤患者的预后生物标志物。

越来越多的证据表明，T细胞受体（TCR）的库多样性可以作为癌症患者免疫反应的预测生物标志物。但是，T细胞库的特征及其在黑色素瘤患者中的预后意义以及对疾病进展的影响仍然未知。我们通过半定量多重N多重PCR对44例黑色素瘤患者的外周血样本以及7个匹配的转移性淋巴结进行了调查，研究了组合的TCR血库多样性，并探讨了其对临床预后的潜在预测价值。通过计算丰富度（不同特异性的数量）和均匀度（不同特异性的相对丰度）来量化多样性。我们的结果表明，患者血液中较高的TCR血库多样性与更长的PFS相关，divpenia（曲目库的多样性低）与预后不良有关。与进展迅速的患者相比，晚期复发和长期生存的患者的多样性明显更高。有趣的是，肿瘤中TCR库的多样性可能具有潜在的预后价值。因此，我们的研究强调了TCR血库多样性是黑色素瘤患者临床预后的预后指标。