Immune Phenotype Correlates With Survival in Patients With GBM Treated With Standard Temozolomide-based Therapy and Immunotherapy

PMID: 30952748
Journal: Anticancer research (volume: 39, issue: 4, Anticancer Res 2019 Apr;39(4):2043-2051)
Published: 2019-04-01

Authors:
Antonopoulos M, VAN Gool SW, Dionysiou D, Graf N, Stamatakos G

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND/AIM: The need for more effective treatment modalities that can improve the clinical outcome of patients with glioblastoma multiforme remains imperative. Dendritic cell vaccination is a fast-developing treatment modality, currently under exploration. Functional immune cell subpopulations may play a role in the final outcome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from 101 patients drawn from the HGG-2010 trial, including baseline patient characteristics and fluorescence-activated cell sorting of immune cell subpopulations, were analyzed by statistical and machine-learning methods.

RESULTS: The analysis revealed strong correlations between immune profiles and overall survival, when the extent of resection and the vaccination schedule were used as stratification variables.

CONCLUSION: A systematic, in silico workflow detecting strong and statistically significant correlations between overall survival and immune profile-derived quantities obtained at the start of dendritic cell vaccination was devised. The derived correlations could serve as a basis for the identification of prognostic markers discriminating between potential long- and short-term survivors of patients with glioblastoma multiforme.