CD4⁺ TIL（肿瘤浸润淋巴细胞）与口腔鳞状细胞癌部分临床病理指标相关性的评估

The delayed diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) affects therapeutic and prognostic strategies, and provides regional recurrence or distant metastasis. The tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are known as a critical diagnostic biomarker in antitumor immune response. We evaluated the association between CD4 + T-lymphocyte marker, some clinicopathological indices, and the impact of TILs on the stage and grade of OSCC.

In this cross-sectional study, 37 OSCC specimens including 16 early and 21 advanced stages (categorized base-on recent clinical oncology references) and their related healthy surgical margin (as internal control group) were collected. Obtained histochemical data were analyzed by SPSS V.23 software. The expression of CD4 + marker in tumor microenvironment (TME) was compared by nonparametric Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis as well as Fisher's exact tests. P < 0.05 was remarked statistically significant.

The low-grade patients represented more CD4 + TIL that was statistically significant ( P = 0.011). However, there was no statistically significant difference in CD4 + TIL between various stages ( P = 0.404), tumor size, and lymph node involvement (P > 0.05). Moreover, there was no significant relation between TIL infiltration, age, and tumor localization (P > 0.05), however CD4 + expression in women was more than men ( P = 0.008). The CD4 + T-lymphocyte infiltration in TME was more significant than healthy surgical margin ( P < 0.001). There was a statistically significant difference between healthy surgical margin and different grades and stages of OSCCs that lower grades demonstrated more CD4 + TIL infiltration ( P < 0.001).

The CD4 + T-lymphocytes may play important role in differentiation and maturity of epithelial cell, tumorigenesis, and progression of OSCC.