Smoking and Tumor Immune Microenvironment in HNSCC

This study was designed to measure immune cell differences between HNSCC patients according to smoking history. We measured CD3, CD8, FoxP3, PD-1 and PD-L1 for immune markers and Pancytokeratin to distinguish between tumor and surrounding tissue. We observed that current smokers have significantly lower numbers of immune cells surrounding the tumor than former or never smokers. GSEA analysis of RNAseq data from this cohort suggests that smoking is associated with reduced Interferon (IFN) Alpha and Gamma levels, and also with reduced levels of IFN-response cytokines CXCL9, 10 and 11. These results emphasize the hypothetical benefits of smoking cessation during treatment for HNSCC.]]>
This was a retrospective cohort study including all patients treated at the Moffitt Cancer Center between 2006 and 2016, who had sufficient archival tumor material available for study. Cases with HPV-positive tumors were excluded.]]>