The Prognostic Importance of CD20+ B lymphocytes in Colorectal Cancer and the Relation to Other Immune Cell subsets

• Published in: Scientific reports 2019-12, Vol.9 (1), p.19997-9, Article 19997
• Main Authors: Edin, Sofia, Kaprio, Tuomas, Hagström, Jaana, Larsson, Pär, Mustonen, Harri, Böckelman, Camilla, Strigård, Karin, Gunnarsson, Ulf, Haglund, Caj, Palmqvist, Richard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 14; 14/1; 14/63; 692/4020/1503/1504/1885; 692/420/2780/2152; 82/51; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antigens, CD20 - metabolism; B-Lymphocytes - immunology; B-Lymphocytes - metabolism; Biomarkers; CD20 antigen; CD8 antigen; Colorectal cancer; Colorectal carcinoma; Colorectal Neoplasms - immunology; Colorectal Neoplasms - metabolism; Colorectal Neoplasms - mortality; Colorectal Neoplasms - pathology; Cytotoxicity; Female; Foxp3 protein; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Immune response; Immunohistochemistry; Immunoregulation; Infiltration; Leukocytes (neutrophilic); Lymphocyte Subsets - immunology; Lymphocyte Subsets - metabolism; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes B; Lymphocytes T; Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating - immunology; Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating - metabolism; Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating - pathology; Macrophages; Male; Medical prognosis; Metastases; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Neoplasm Staging; Prognosis; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Tumors
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-56441-8

The anti-tumour immune response is critical to patient prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC). The aim of this study was to investigate infiltration of B lymphocytes into CRC tumours, and their clinical relevance, prognostic value and relation to other immune cell subsets. We used multiplexed immunohistochemistry and multispectral imaging to assay the amount of infiltrating CD20 + B lymphocytes along with infiltration of CD8 + cytotoxic T cells, FOXP3 + T regulatory cells, CD68 + macrophages and CD66b + neutrophils, in 316 archival CRC tissue specimens. A higher density of infiltrating CD20 + B lymphocytes was associated with tumours of the right colon ( P  = 0.025) and of lower stages ( P  = 0.009). Furthermore, patients whose tumours were highly infiltrated by CD20 + B lymphocytes had a significantly improved disease-specific survival (HR = 0.45, 95% CI 0.28–0.73, P  = 0.001), which remained significant in multivariable analysis. CD20 + B lymphocytes were highly and positively associated with CD8 + T lymphocytes ( P