Prognostic role of proliferating CD8(+) cytotoxic Tcells in human cancers

PURPOSE: Expansion of CD8(+) cytotoxic Tlymphocytes is a prerequisite for anti-cancer immune activity and has gained interest in the era of immune checkpoint therapy. METHODS: To understand the CD8(+) T cell dynamics in the tumor microenvironment, we used multiplex fluorescence immunohistochemistry to quantitate CD8(+) proliferation (Ki67 co-expression) in tissue microarrays from 1107 colorectal, 642 renal cell, 1066 breast, 375 ovarian, 451 pancreatic and 347 gastric cancer samples. RESULTS: The density and the percentage of proliferating (Ki67(+)) CD8(+) T cells were both highly variable between tumor types as well as between patients with the same tumor type. Elevated density and percentage of proliferating CD8(+) cytotoxic T cells were significantly associated with favorable tumor parameters such as low tumor stage, negative nodal stage (p ≤ 0.0041 each), prolonged overall survival (p ≤ 0.0028 each) and an inflamed immune phenotype (p = 0.0025) in colorectal cancer and, in contrast, linked to high tumor stage, advanced ISUP/Fuhrman/Thoenes grading (each p ≤ 0.003), shorter overall survival (p ≤ 0.0330 each) and an immune inflamed phenotype (p = 0.0094) in renal cell cancer. In breast, ovarian, pancreatic and gastric cancer the role of (Ki67(+))CD8(+) Tcells was not linked to clinicopathological data. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrate a tumor type dependent prognostic impact of proliferating (Ki67(+))CD8(+) Tcells and an inverse impact in colorectal and renal cell cancer. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13402-021-00601-4.