Longitudinal analyses of CD3ζ-chain expression in the correlation of the disease status in a cohort of head and neck cancer patients (TUM2P.1033)

Abstract

Abstract Purpose: Despite advances in multimodality treatment, the 5-year survival rate of Head and neck squamous cancer (HNSCC) patients has unimproved over the last 4 decades. CD3ζ has emerged as a clinically important immunological molecule in HNSCC. Its relevance as a prognostic biomarker of HNSCC, however, has not been formally addressed in a longitudinal study. Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were collected from 46 patients and 53 controls at the time of diagnosis and post treatments (upto 2 year period). Expression of CD3ζ in the T cells of the PBMC samples were analyzed in flow cytometry. Results: We standardized a method for longitudinal analyses of intracellular CD3z expressions in the PBMC samples. We considered a <10% baseline increase in the normalized MFI of CD3ζ expression as a predictor of disease status in evaluating the follow-up samples of the HNSCC patients. Correlation analysis showed that 27/29 HNSCC patients who showed an increase in the CD3ζ expression relative to their baselines were disease free (negative predictive value. 93.1%). 10/17 HNSCC patients who showed a reduced/no change in the CD3ζ expression died or had recurrent disease (positive predictive value, 58.8 %). Overall accuracy of the assay was 80.43%. The sensitivity and specificity were respectively 83.3% and 79.41%. Conclusion: Our longitudinal analyses supported that a >10% increase in the CD3ζ expression against baseline could be a good prognostic biomarker in HNSCC patients.