Tumor-infiltrating CD8+ lymphocytes predict different clinical outcomes in organ- and non-organ-confined urothelial carcinoma of the bladder following radical cystectomy

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are associated with better clinical outcomes in many tumors. TILs represent a cell-mediated immune response against the carcinoma. CD8+ TILs are a crucial component of cell-mediated immunity. The significance of CD8+ TILs has not been reported respectively in organ- and non-organ-confined urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the bladder. We explored the prognostic value of CD8+ TILs in the two groups. The presence of CD8+ TILs was assessed by immunohistochemical staining of whole tissue sections from 75 organ and 51 non-organ-confined disease patients with long-term follow-up, and its correlation with clinicopathological features and overall survival (OS) was determined. The CD8+ TIL immunohistochemical staining score was 0 (<1%), 1 (≥1%), 2 (≥5%), or 3 (≥10%) based on the percentage of positively stained cells out of total cells. A patient was considered CD8 negative if the score was 0. There were no associations between CD8+ TILs and age, sex, nuclear grade, and adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy in organ- and non-organ-confined disease. The presence of CD8+ TILs was seen more frequently in pTa-(1) than pT(2) stage (p = 0.033) in organ-confined disease. No associations between CD8+ TILs and pT stage, pN stage were found in non-organ-confined disease. CD8+ TILs were associated with better OS (log-rank test, P = 0.036) in non-organ-confined disease, but with poorer OS (log-rank test, P = 0.040) in organ-confined disease by the Kaplan–Meier method. In multivariate analysis, CD8+ TILs were an independent favorable prognostic factor in non-organ-confined disease, but were an independent unfavorable prognostic factor in organ-confined disease. These results suggest that CD8+ TILs have clinically significant anti-tumor activity in non-organ-confined disease, but may have pro-tumor activity in organ-confined disease. Therefore, we should be cautious if CD8+ TILs are aimed to be exploited in the treatment of bladder cancer.