Open AccessPrognostic impact of tumor-associated macrophage infiltration in non-small cell lung cancer: A systemic review and meta-analysis
Author(s) -
Jiandong Mei,
Zhilan Xiao,
Chenglin Guo,
Qiang Pu,
Lin Ma,
Chengwu Liu,
Feng Lin,
Hu Liao,
Zongbing You,
Lunxu Liu
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
oncotarget
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.373
H-Index - 127
ISSN - 1949-2553
DOI - 10.18632/oncotarget.9079
Subject(s) - cd68 , medicine , tumor associated macrophage , hazard ratio , stroma , tumor microenvironment , oncology , cancer research , lung cancer , cancer , immunohistochemistry , confidence interval
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are important components of cancer microenvironment. In the present study, we searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library and Web of Science to perform a meta-analysis of 20 studies including a total of 2,572 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, in order to determine the association between TAMs and NSCLC prognosis. The combined hazard ratio (HR) of 9 studies showed that the density of total CD68+ TAMs in the tumor islet and stroma was not associated with overall survival (OS) of the patients. However, the pooled HR of 4 studies showed that high density of CD68+ TAMs in the tumor islet predicted better OS, while the pooled HR of 6 studies showed that high density of CD68+ TAMs in the tumor stroma was associated with poor OS. A high islet/stroma ratio of CD68+ TAMs was associated with better OS. A high density of M1 TAMs in the tumor islet was associated with better OS, while a high density of M2 TAMs in the tumor stroma predicted poor OS. These findings suggest that, although the density of total CD68+ TAMs is not associated with OS, the localization and M1/M2 polarization of TAMs are potential prognostic predictors of NSCLC.