Distinct tumor immune microenvironments in primary and metastatic lesions in gastric cancer patients

Abstract

This study compared the tumor immune microenvironments (TIMEs) of primary gastric cancer (PGC) and paired metastatic gastric cancer (MGC). CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell density and PD-L1 expression were evaluated by multiplex immunohistochemistry, DNA mismatch repair (MMR) by immunohistochemistry, and immune-related genes by RNA sequencing. Twenty-three patients who underwent surgical treatment for PGC and MGC were enrolled in this study. CD8+ T-cell, PD-L1+ cell, and PD-L1+CK+ cell densities were significantly lower in MGC than PGC. PD-L1 positivity using a combined positive score (≥ 1%) and deficient MMR were observed in 52.2% and 8.7% of PGC samples, respectively, whereas both occurred in only 4.3% of MGC samples. The most frequent TIME types were inflamed (34.8%) and adaptive immune resistance (34.8%) in PGC, and immune desert (65.2%) and immunological ignorance (73.9%) in MGC. In transcriptome analysis, the expression of the T-cell inflamed gene set and co-stimulatory gene module was down-regulated in MGC compared to PGC. The total CD8+ T-cell density was an independent prognostic marker in both PGC and MGC (univariate P = 0.002, multivariate P = 0.006). Our result suggest that the TIME of metastatic tumors was less immunologically active compared to that of primary tumors in gastric cancer patients.