The immune contexture of hepatocellular carcinoma predicts clinical outcome

The general relevance of the immune system for cancer development and therapy is increasingly recognized. However and although the immune contexture of most human cancer types has been determined, a global characterisation of the immune tumour microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is la...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2018-03, Vol.8 (1), p.5351-11, Article 5351
Main Authors: Foerster, Friedrich, Hess, Moritz, Gerhold-Ay, Aslihan, Marquardt, Jens Uwe, Becker, Diana, Galle, Peter Robert, Schuppan, Detlef, Binder, Harald, Bockamp, Ernesto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
38
38/91
692/4028/67/1504
692/4028/67/1504/1610/4029
Clinical outcomes
Cytotoxicity
Helper cells
Hepatocellular carcinoma
Humanities and Social Sciences
Immune system
Liver cancer
Lymphocytes T
Macrophages
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Tumor microenvironment
Tumors
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Summary:The general relevance of the immune system for cancer development and therapy is increasingly recognized. However and although the immune contexture of most human cancer types has been determined, a global characterisation of the immune tumour microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is lacking. Equally, differences in the immune contexture of HCC between different patient subgroups and its effect on survival remain to be established. Here we report an in silico analysis of the immune contexture of human HCC. Using large deep sequencing HCC tumour, adjacent non-tumour and healthy liver high-dimensional data sets, we were able to reveal previously unrecognized differences in the immune contexture of HCC. Strikingly, we found that different etiologies and HCC stages were not associated with major changes in the immune contexture. In contrast, the presence of T cells and cytotoxic cells as well as the absence of macrophages and Th2 cells positively correlated with patient survival. Based on these novel findings, we developed a prognostic score that accurately distinguishes between patients with good and poor survival. Our study provides the first global characterisation of the immune contexture of HCC and will have direct implications for future HCC therapies.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-21937-2