Mature dendritic cells correlate with favorable immune infiltrate and improved prognosis in ovarian carcinoma patients

A high density of tumor-infiltrating CD8(+) T cells and CD20(+) B cells correlates with prolonged survival in patients with a wide variety of human cancers, including high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC). However, the potential impact of mature dendritic cells (DCs) in shaping the immune contexture of HGSC, their role in the establishment of T cell-dependent antitumor immunity, and their potential prognostic value for HGSC patients remain unclear. We harnessed immunohistochemical tests and biomolecular analyses to demonstrate that a high density of tumor-infiltrating DC-LAMP(+) DCs is robustly associated with an immune contexture characterized by T(H)1 polarization and cytotoxic activity. We showed that both mature DCs and CD20(+) B cells play a critical role in the generation of a clinically-favorable cytotoxic immune response in HGSC microenvironment. In line with this notion, robust tumor infiltration by both DC-LAMP(+) DCs and CD20(+) B cells was associated with most favorable overall survival in two independent cohorts of chemotherapy-naïve HGSC patients. Our findings suggest that the presence of mature, DC-LAMP(+) DCs in the tumor microenvironment may represent a novel, powerful prognostic biomarker for HGSC patients that reflects the activation of clinically-relevant anticancer immunity. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40425-018-0446-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.