%0 Journal Article
%A Cardenas-Quesada, Nuria
%A Diaz-Beltran, Leticia
%A Rosa-Garrido, Carmen
%A Marquez-Lobo, Belgica
%A Sabio-Gonzalez, Adela
%A Luque-Barona, Rafael J
%A Nuñez, Maria Isabel
%A Sanchez-Rovira, Pedro
%T TFG-β Nuclear Staining as a Potential Relapse Risk Factor in Early-Stage Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.
%D 2022
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10668/21214
%X Nowadays, the impact of the tumor-immune microenvironment (TME) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) prognosis and treatment response remains unclear. Thus, we evaluated the expression of PD-L1, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) in NSCLC to identify differences in TME, detect possible new prognostic factors, and assess their relationship. We retrospectively analyzed 55 samples from patients who underwent NSCLC surgery and had over a 5-year follow-up. PD-L1 expression was determined by immunohistochemistry following standard techniques. The presence of TILs was evaluated at low magnification and classified into two categories, “intense” and “non-intense”. Cytoplasmic TGF-β staining visualization was divided into four categories, and unequivocal nuclear staining in >1% of viable tumor cells was defined as “present” or “absent”. Our aim was to identify differences in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Tumor stage was the only objective prognostic factor for OS. PD-L1 expression and the presence of TILs had no prognostic impact, neither their combination. There seems to be a lower expression of PD-L1 and a higher expression of TILs in early stages of the disease. Our TGF-β nuclear staining analysis was promising, since it was associated with worse DFS, revealing this protein as a possible prognostic biomarker of recurrence for resectable NSCLC.
%K PD-L1
%K TGF-β
%K TILs
%K checkpoint inhibition
%K early-stage lung cancer
%K prognostic factors
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