Prognostic significance of CD169‐positive lymph node sinus macrophages in patients with endometrial carcinoma

摘要

Lymph node (LN) macrophages play critical roles in anti‐tumor immunity, which develops via the activation of cytotoxic T cells (CTL) and NK cells. The present study aims to determine the prognostic significance of CD169⁺ LN macrophages in patients with endometrial carcinoma (EC). The number of CD169⁺ cells or the CD169⁺‐to‐CD68⁺ macrophage ratio in regional LN (RLN), and the number of CD8⁺ CTL or CD57⁺ NK cells in tumor tissues were investigated by immunohistochemistry in paraffin‐embedded tissue samples from 79 patients with EC. A high density of style="fixed-case">CD169⁺ cells in the style="fixed-case">RLN of patients with style="fixed-case">EC was correlated with an early clinical stage or no style="fixed-case">LN metastasis. A high number of style="fixed-case">CD169⁺ cells and a high style="fixed-case">CD169⁺‐to‐ style="fixed-case">CD68⁺ macrophage ratio were significantly associated with longer overall survival in style="fixed-case">EC. We also found that the density of style="fixed-case">CD169⁺ macrophages was positively correlated with the number of style="fixed-case">CD8⁺ style="fixed-case">CTL and style="fixed-case">CD57⁺ style="fixed-case">NK cells that infiltrated into tumor tissues. A high density of style="fixed-case">CD57⁺ cells in style="fixed-case">EC tissues was associated with a better prognosis, while a high density of style="fixed-case">CD8⁺ cells was not linked to an altered prognosis. The present study showed that the density of style="fixed-case">CD169⁺ macrophages in style="fixed-case">RLN was associated with an improved prognosis in style="fixed-case">EC patients. style="fixed-case">CD169⁺ macrophages in style="fixed-case">RLN might represent a useful marker for assessing clinical prognoses and monitoring anti‐tumor immunity in patients with style="fixed-case">EC.