Distribution characteristics and clinical significance of peripheral blood stem cell-like memory T cells in patients with gastric cancer

Abstract

Objective To study the distribution characteristics of peripheral blood stem cell-like memory T cells (TSCM) in patients with gastric cancer and to analyze their relationship to clinicopathological characteristics and clinical application value. Methods Thirty-two patients hospitalized with gastric cancer in our hospital from July to December, 2018 were selected as the case group. Twenty-three healthy volunteers recruited during the same period served as the control group. The percentages of TSCM, naive T cells (TN) and memory T cells (TM) were detected by flow cytometry and the differences between the two groups were compared. The relationship of clinicopathological features to TN, TSCM, TSCM/TN ratio and TM was analyzed. Results The percentages of TN and TSCM in peripheral blood of the patients were significantly lower than those of the healthy control group, while the ratio of TSCM to TN was significantly increased in the case group (all P<0.05). The proportion of TN was negatively correlated with tumor TNM stage and invasion depth, and positively correlated with the degree of tissue differentiation. The ratio of TSCM to TN was positively correlated with TNM stage, invasion depth and lymph node metastasis. Conclusions TN and the ratio of TSCM to TN in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer are closely related to clinical and pathological characteristics such as tumor stage and invasion depth, which could be used as a new way to evaluate the immune status of patients. TSCM might have important clinical application value in adoptive cellular immunotherapy of gastric cancer, but large-scale multi-center clinical studies are needed for further evaluation. Key words: Gastric cancer; Stem cell-like memory T cell; Naive T cell; Memory T cell; Cellular immunity