Background
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is considered a manifestation of the host immune response to tumor, but the role of TILs on melanoma mortality is controversial. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of TILs on melanoma mortality, controlling for all known histological prognostic parameters.
Materials and methods
We conducted a 10-year cohort study among 4143 patients from the same geographic area (Lazio) with primary cutaneous melanoma diagnosed between January 1998 and December 2008. Survival probability was determined by Kaplan–Meier estimates, and prognostic factors were evaluated by multivariate analysis (Cox proportional hazards model).
Results
Survival decreased with increasing age (P for trend < 0.001) and Breslow thickness (P for trend < 0.001). In the multivariate Cox model, the presence of high levels of tumour infiltrating immune cells in primary invasive melanomas was associated with lower risk of melanoma death (RR: 0.32; 95%CI:0.13-0.82, P for trend <0.001), after controlling for sex, age, breslow thickness, histological type, mitotic rate and ulceration.
Conclusions
These results suggest that immune microenvironment affects melanoma survival. Understanding differences in survival across distinct subgroups of melanoma patients may help choosing types of therapy.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
This article is published under an open access license. Please check the 'Copyright Information' section either on this page or in the PDF for details of this license and what re-use is permitted. If your intended use exceeds what is permitted by the license or if you are unable to locate the licence and re-use information, please contact the Rights and Permissions team.
About this article
Cite this article
Fortes, C., Mastroeni, S., Manooranparanpampil, T. et al. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes predict cutaneous melanoma survival. J Transl Med 13 (Suppl 1), O9 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5876-13-S1-O9
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5876-13-S1-O9