Abstract
Purpose
The regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a subpopulation of lymphocytes that suppress the immune responses. The prognostic value of Tregs in lymphoma patients remains controversial. Thus, we conducted this meta-analysis to clarify the role of Tregs in the prognosis of lymphoma patients.
Methods
We searched PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science to obtain eligible studies that evaluated the prognostic factor of Tregs for lymphoma patients. Hazards ratios (HRs) with the matching 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were merged to estimate the prognostic value of Tregs.
Results
We finally retrieved 23 eligible studies, including a total of 2269 patients. The overall pooled analysis on all types of lymphomas showed that Tregs had a significantly positive association with prolonged overall survival (OS) (HR = 0.633, 95% CI 0.528–0.758) and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR = 0.451, 95% CI 0.261–0.779). Subgroup analysis indicated that high Tregs were significantly correlated with longer OS in Hodgkin lymphoma, diffuse large B cell lymphoma, and natural killer/T cell lymphoma. However, there was no significant association of Tregs with T cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma.
Conclusions
Increased Tregs indicates a better prognosis for patients with lymphoma. Tregs could be used as a valuable prognostic biomarker of lymphoma patients.
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Availability of data and materials
The datasets used in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- Tregs:
-
Regulatory T cells
- HR:
-
Hazards ratio
- CI:
-
Confidence interval
- OS:
-
Overall survival
- PFS:
-
Progression-free survival
- NHL:
-
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
- HL:
-
Hodgkin lymphoma
- MDSCs:
-
Myeloid-derived suppressor cells
- FOXP3:
-
Forkhead box P3
- NOS:
-
Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale
- BCL:
-
B-cell lymphoma
- NKTCL:
-
Natural killer/T cell lymphoma
- TCL:
-
T cell lymphoma
- FL:
-
Follicular lymphoma
- DLBCL:
-
Diffuse large B cell lymphoma
- IPI:
-
International prognostic index
- Th cells:
-
T helper cells
- CTLs:
-
Cytotoxic T cells
- DCs:
-
Dendritic cells
- T cons:
-
Conventional T cells
- cAMP:
-
Cyclic adenosine monophosphate
- IL-10:
-
Interleukin-10
- NK cells:
-
Natural killer cells
- RS cells:
-
Reed-Sternberg cells
- Tfh:
-
T follicular helper cells
- IL-2:
-
Interleukin-2
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This work was supported by grants of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No 81500172 for Lisha Ai and No 81202962 for You Qin).
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FP and YQ collected and analyzed the data, wrote the paper. FP, YQ, SM and JL analyzed the data and wrote the paper. LA and YH conceived and designed this study, analyzed the data, wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Peng, F., Qin, Y., Mu, S. et al. Prognostic role of regulatory T cells in lymphoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 146, 3123–3135 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-020-03398-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-020-03398-1