Abstract
e21114 Background: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a critical role in suppressing T-cell-mediated immunity in patients with cancer. A highly specific marker for Tregs is Foxp3, a transcription factor which appears to be a master control gene for their development and function. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of Foxp3 as a prognostic marker in resectable NSCLC patients. Methods: Foxp3 expression was assessed by RT-PCR in frozen samples (tumor and normal lung) from 150 NSCLC patients. Foxp3 relative expression was normalized by an endogenous gene (GUSB) and compared with clinicopathological variables. Statistical analyses were considered significant at p<0.05. Results: RT-PCR analysis showed that Foxp3 was over-expressed (>2.0X) in 41/150 tumor lung tissues. No significant associations were found between Foxp3 expression and gender, ECOG-PS, stage or histology. Patients with Foxp3 > 1.48X (median value) showed a shorter TTP (median 22.1 vs 66.6 months, p= 0.017) and OS (median 26.8 vs 49.7 months, p= 0.036) than others. Conclusions: Foxp3 is a transcription factor necessary and sufficient for induction of the immunosuppressive functions in Tregs. In concordance, our results indicate that high expression of Foxp3 in tumor samples is a poor prognostic marker for TTP and OS in resectable NSCLC. It could be inferred that overcoming Treg activity, may be beneficial for the treatment of this type of cancer. Supported by grants PS09-01149 and RD06/0020/1024 from ISCIII.
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