Abstract
BackgroundOral squamous cell carcinomas are often heavily infiltrated by immune cells. The organization of B-cells, follicular dendritic cells, T-cells and high-endothelial venules into structures termed tertiary lymphoid structures have been detected in various types of cancer, where their presence is found to predict favourable outcome. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the incidence of tertiary lymphoid structures in oral squamous cell carcinomas, and if present, analyse whether they were associated with clinical outcome.MethodsTumour samples from 80 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma were immunohistochemically stained for B-cells, follicular dendritic cells, T-cells, germinal centre B-cells and high-endothelial venules. Some samples were sectioned at multiple levels to assess whether the presence of tertiary lymphoid structures varied within the tumour.ResultsTumour-associated tertiary lymphoid structures were detected in 21 % of the tumours and were associated with lower disease-specific death. The presence of tertiary lymphoid structures varied within different levels of a tissue block.ConclusionsTertiary lymphoid structure formation was found to be a positive prognostic factor for patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Increased knowledge about tertiary lymphoid structure formation in oral squamous cell carcinoma might help to develop and guide immune-modulatory cancer treatments.
Highlights
Oral squamous cell carcinomas are often heavily infiltrated by immune cells
Presence of tertiary lymphoid structure (TLS) in Oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) TLSs are highly organized structures that typically appear as clusters of B-cells containing follicular dendritic cells (FDCs)
We investigated the presence of TLSs in tumour specimens from 80 patients with OSCCs using immunohistochemistry
Summary
The organization of B-cells, follicular dendritic cells, T-cells and high-endothelial venules into structures termed tertiary lymphoid structures have been detected in various types of cancer, where their presence is found to predict favourable outcome. Oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) are tumours known to metastasize to lymph nodes at an early stage of their development [1]. Considerable interest has been devoted to the complex interplay between tumour cells and host-immune response, and especially to how infiltrating immune cells might affect the clinical outcome of cancer patients. It is well established that immune cells infiltrating to sites of chronic inflammation organize themselves both anatomically and functionally similar to secondary lymphoid organs (SLOs), a phenomenon called tertiary lymphoid structure (TLS) formation [8]. Formation of ectopic lymphoid tissue is associated with disease progression [11], whereas TLS development in breast, ovarian, nonsmall-cell lung, renal and colorectal cancer is reported to be associated with a favourable prognosis [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
