Background

Tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) have recently been identified as a relevant component of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in solid tumors. Within the TME TANs mediate either tumor-promoting or tumor-inhibiting activities. So far, their prognostic relevance remains to be determined. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic relevance of TANs in different molecular subtypes of gastric and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Methods

We analyzed a total of 1118 Caucasian patients divided into gastric adenocarcinoma (n = 458) and esophageal adenocarcinoma cohort (n = 660) of primarily resected and neoadjuvant-treated individuals. The amount of CD66b + TANs in the tumor stroma was determined using quantitative image analysis and correlated to both molecular, as well as clinical data.

Results

An accumulation of TANs in the tumor stroma of gastric carcinomas was associated to a significant favorable prognosis (p = 0.026). A subgroup analysis showed that this effect was primarily related to the molecular chromosomal instable subtype (CIN) of gastric carcinomas (p = 0.010). This was only observed in female patients (p = 0.014) but not in male patients (p = 0.315). The same sex-specific effect could be confirmed in adenocarcinomas of the esophagus (p = 0.027), as well as in female individuals after receiving neoadjuvant therapy (p = 0.034).

Conclusions

Together, we show a sex-specific prognostic effect of TANs in gastric cancer within a Caucasian cohort. For the first time, we showed that this sex-specific prognostic effect of TANs can also be seen in esophageal cancer.

中文翻译：

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CD66b 阳性肿瘤浸润性中性粒细胞 (TANs) 在胃和食管腺癌中的性别特异性预后作用

背景

肿瘤相关中性粒细胞 (TAN) 最近已被确定为实体瘤中肿瘤微环境 (TME) 的相关成分。在 TME 内，TAN 介导肿瘤促进或肿瘤抑制活性。到目前为止，它们的预后相关性仍有待确定。本研究旨在评估 TAN 在胃和食管腺癌不同分子亚型中的预后相关性。

方法

我们分析了 1118 名高加索患者，分为胃腺癌 ( n  = 458) 和食管腺癌队列 ( n  = 660)，主要是切除和新辅助治疗的个体。使用定量图像分析确定肿瘤基质中 CD66b + TAN 的量，并与分子和临床数据相关。

结果

胃癌肿瘤基质中 TAN 的积累与显着的良好预后相关 ( p  = 0.026)。亚组分析表明，这种影响主要与胃癌的分子染色体不稳定亚型（CIN）有关（p  = 0.010）。这仅在女性患者中观察到 ( p  = 0.014)，但在男性患者中未观察到 ( p  = 0.315)。在食管腺癌 ( p  = 0.027) 以及接受新辅助治疗后的女性个体 ( p  = 0.034)中可以证实相同的性别特异性效应。

结论

总之，我们在白种人队列中展示了 TAN 在胃癌中的性别特异性预后作用。我们首次表明，TAN 的这种性别特异性预后作用也可以在食道癌中观察到。