Surgical resection is the only curative treatment for patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer. However, approximately 33% of non-small cell lung cancer patients recur with the stage I disease, which may be attributed to a deficiency in antitumor immunity. In the present study, for early stage lung adenocarcinoma patients with early recurrence and early non-recurrence, we investigated the quantity of tumor-infiltrating T and B cells by immunohistochemistry, as well as the genes in the complementarity determining region 3 of the T-cell receptor β chain and the B-cell receptor immunoglobulin heavy chain. A decreased number of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes cells (CD3⁺, CD4⁺, CD8⁺ and CD20⁺) was present in early recurrence patients. A significant increase in oligoclones and a reduction in T-cell receptor diversity were observed in the early recurrence group. Furthermore, there was a preference for V, J gene, and VJ gene combinations in patients with early recurrence versus non-recurrence, suggesting that this may be a new biomarker for the recurrence of early stage lung adenocarcinoma. These data indicate that T and B cell receptor repertoires influence the depth of human adaptive immune responses, and in addition to the quantity of tumor infiltrating T and B cells, may contribute to the prevention of early stage lung adenocarcinoma recurrence after surgical resection. Our study illustrates the potential value of the immune repertoire for predicting clinical efficacy and patient outcomes.

对于早期非小细胞肺癌患者，手术切除是唯一的治疗方法。但是，大约33％的非小细胞肺癌患者复发I期疾病，这可能归因于抗肿瘤免疫力的不足。在本研究中，对于早期复发和早期未复发的早期肺腺癌患者，我们通过免疫组织化学研究了肿瘤浸润性T和B细胞的数量，以及T-的互​​补决定区3中的基因细胞受体β链和B细胞受体免疫球蛋白重链。肿瘤浸润淋巴细胞的数量减少（CD3 ⁺，CD4 ⁺，CD8 ⁺和CD20 ⁺）出现在早期复发的患者中。在早期复发组中观察到寡克隆的显着增加和T细胞受体多样性的减少。此外，在早期复发与非复发患者中，V，J基因和VJ基因组合更为可取，这表明这可能是早期肺腺癌复发的新生物标志物。这些数据表明，T细胞和B细胞受体组成会影响人类适应性免疫反应的深度，并且除了肿瘤浸润的T细胞和B细胞的数量外，还可能有助于预防手术切除后的早期肺腺癌复发。我们的研究表明了免疫库对预测临床疗效和患者预后的潜在价值。