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High IL-17-positive tumor immune cell infiltration is indicative for chemosensitivity of ovarian carcinoma

  • Original Paper
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Abstract

Purpose

Ovarian carcinoma in most instances is diagnosed in an advanced stage which cannot be cured by surgical tumor debulking alone. Standard adjuvant chemotherapy usually follows surgical procedures. Yet, few reliable predictive tissue markers exist for the response of ovarian carcinoma to chemotherapy. In this study, we evaluated the predictive value of IL-17- and FOXP3-positive tumor immune cell infiltration (TICI) for response to chemotherapy in ovarian carcinoma.

Methods

Formalin fixed and paraffin embedded biopsies of mostly high-grade primary serous ovarian carcinomas and their matched recurrences were immunostained with IL-17 and FOXP3 on a tissue microarray. Chemoresistance was defined as tumor recurrence within 6 months of the completion of platinum-based chemotherapy. In 94 and 90 biopsies, conclusive data for IL-17 and FOXP3 were available, respectively.

Results

IL-17, but not FOXP3-positive TICI, displayed a significantly higher density in biopsies of chemosensitive tumors (p = 0.01). No significant difference in the expression of IL-17 and FOXP3 TICI was observed in all paired primary and recurrent biopsies without respect to chemoresponse (p = 0.77 and p = 0.87, respectively). However, significantly more IL-17-positive recurrences were encountered in the group of patients with chemosensitive tumors (p = 0.008).

Conclusions

High IL-17-positive TICI is indicative for response to chemotherapy in ovarian carcinoma. Higher frequency of IL-17-positive TICI might persist in recurrent tumor tissues of chemosensitive biopsies, suggesting repetitive platinum-based chemotherapy as an appropriate therapy for patients with IL-17-positive recurrences.

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Abbreviations

FOXP3:

Forkhead box P3

TMA:

Tissue microarray

Treg:

Regulatory T cell

IL-17:

Interleukin-17

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Swiss Cancer League (Oncosuisse), Grant number OCS 01506-02-2004 for G.S.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no financial competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, University Hospital Basel, Spitalstrasse 21, 4031, Basel, Switzerland

    Raoul A. Droeser & Christian Hirt

  2. Institute for Surgical Research and Hospital Management ICFS, Hebelstrasse 20, 4031, Basel, Switzerland

    Raoul A. Droeser & Christian Hirt

  3. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital Basel, Spitalstrasse 21, 4031, Basel, Switzerland

    Uwe Güth

  4. Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Schönbeinstrasse 40, 4031, Basel, Switzerland

    Serenella Eppenberger-Castori & Luigi Terracciano

  5. Institute of Pathology, Kantonsspital Baden AG, Im Ergel 1, 5404, Baden, Switzerland

    Sylvia Stadlmann & Gad Singer

  6. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Kantonsspital Winterthur, Brauerstrasse 15, 8400, Winterthur, Switzerland

    Uwe Güth

Authors
  1. Raoul A. Droeser
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  2. Uwe Güth
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  3. Serenella Eppenberger-Castori
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  4. Sylvia Stadlmann
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  5. Christian Hirt
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  6. Luigi Terracciano
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  7. Gad Singer
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Correspondence to Raoul A. Droeser.

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Droeser, R.A., Güth, U., Eppenberger-Castori, S. et al. High IL-17-positive tumor immune cell infiltration is indicative for chemosensitivity of ovarian carcinoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 139, 1295–1302 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-013-1441-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-013-1441-1

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