Tregs Expression Predicts Prognosis in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

A. Baquerizo,¹ V. Vavinskaya,² C. Frenette,¹ M. Nelson,¹ R. Schaffer,¹ J. Fisher,¹ L. Sher,³ B. Madani,¹ P. Pockros,¹ C. Marsh.¹

¹Surgery / Transplant, Scripps Green Hospital, La Jolla, CA
²Pathology, UCSD, San Diego, CA
³Surgery / Transplant, USC, Los Angeles, CA.

Meeting: 2018 American Transplant Congress

Abstract number: B263

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Liver transplantation, T cells

Session Information

Session Name: Poster Session B: Liver: Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Other Malignancies

Session Type: Poster Session

Date: Sunday, June 3, 2018

Session Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm

Presentation Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm

Location: Hall 4EF

New therapeutic strategies are needed to improve the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the third in overall global cancer-related mortality. T regulatory cells (Tregs) are thought to play a key role in cancer evasion from immunosurveillance

Aim:

Analyze the expression of FoxP3+ Tregs as a prognostic marker in HCC patients

M&M:

The expression of FoxP3+ in paraffin embedded tissue of 60 HCC patients (52 liver transplants, 8 liver resections), and 10 controls (5 cirrhosis and 5 normal livers) was assessed by immunohistochemistry.

Relevant patients demographics and clinical data were collected (age, sex, peak AFP pre-surgery, MELD, Child-Pugh score, total tumor volume -TTV-, number of tumors, tumor distribution, tumor differentiation, vascular invasion)

Overall survival (interval between surgery and death) and time-to-recurrence (TTR) from the time of surgery, were calculated by Kaplan-Meier. Groups were compared by the log-rank test.

Results:

Patients mean age was 59.7 years old, and 73.3% were male. TTV >5 was present in 51.8%, 26.8% had vascular invasion, and 13.3% were poorly differentiated HCC. Vascular invasion, TTV >5, and poor tumor differentiation were associated with both higher tumor recurrence rate (p=0.0005, p=0.008, and p=0.04 respectively), and decrease survival (p=0.03, p=0.05, and p=0.02 respectively). High AFP levels pre-surgery was also associated with shorter TTR (p=0.04).

Intratumoral FoxP3+ Tregs expression >25% was detected in 10% of patients with HCC vs. 0% in controls. Patients with high intratumoral Tregs expression (>25%) showed a significantly higher recurrence rate (p=0.03) and lower survival rate (overall survival, p =0.13 ). Additionally, higher expression of Tregs was observed in poorly differentiated tumors (p=0.01) and was correlated with higher AFP levels pre-surgery (p=0.02)

Conclusions: Intratumoral expression of Tregs correlates with worse prognosis in HCC. These results may have implications as prognostic markers.

CITATION INFORMATION: Baquerizo A., Vavinskaya V., Frenette C., Nelson M., Schaffer R., Fisher J., Sher L., Madani B., Pockros P., Marsh C. Tregs Expression Predicts Prognosis in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Baquerizo A, Vavinskaya V, Frenette C, Nelson M, Schaffer R, Fisher J, Sher L, Madani B, Pockros P, Marsh C. Tregs Expression Predicts Prognosis in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma [abstract]. https://atcmeetingabstracts.com/abstract/tregs-expression-predicts-prognosis-in-patients-with-hepatocellular-carcinoma/. Accessed May 9, 2025.

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