活化的NK细胞与分化型甲状腺癌术后复发关系的TCGA数据库分析

Association of activated NK cells and postoperative recurrence of differentiated thyroid cancer based on TCGA Database

目的:探讨免疫细胞浸润与分化型甲状腺癌术后复发之间的关系。方法:从TCGA数据库中下载507例分化型甲状腺癌患者的临床数据,运用反卷积算法估算22种免疫细胞在分化型甲状腺癌组织中的浸润情况,用生存分析法分析各免疫细胞不同的浸润程度与患者术后复发之间的关系。结果:反卷积算法分析结果显示,除初始CD4 T细胞在各样本中均未发现外,其余21种免疫细胞在各肿瘤样本中有不同程度的浸润。Kaplan-Meier生存曲线及Log-rank参数检验分析结果显示,只有活化的NK细胞浸润与患者的无病生存有关,浸润程度较高患者无病生存期长于浸润程度低患者(P=0.004)。多因素Cox回归风险模型分析显示,活化的NK细胞为分化型甲状腺癌术后复发的独立影响因素(HR=0.17,95%CI=0.05~0.62,P=0.007)。结论:活化的NK细胞可以降低分化型甲状腺癌的复发风险,延长患者的无病生存期,是分化型甲状腺癌术后复发的独立保护因素。

Objective:To investigate the relationship between immune cell infiltration and postoperative recurrence of differentiated thyroid cancer.Methods:The clinical data of 507 patients were downloaded from the TCGA database.The infiltrations of 22 different kinds of immune cells in the cancer tissues were estimated by deconvolution method,and the relationship between the degree of infiltration of each kind of immune cells and postoperative recurrence of thepatients was analyzed by survival analysis.Results:The analysis of deconvolution showed that except the naive CD4 T was absent in all specimens,all the other 21 kinds of immune cells had varied degrees of infiltration in all specimens.The analysis of Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Log-rank tests showed that only the activated NK cell infiltration was significantly associated with the disease-free survival of the patients,as evidenced by the disease-free survival time in patients with high degree of activated NK cell infiltration was significantly longer than that in patients with low degree of activated NK cell infiltration(P=0.004).Multivariate Cox regression risk model showed that the degree of activated NK cell infiltration was an independent influential factor for postoperative recurrence of differentiated thyroid cancer(HR=0.17,95%CI=0.05–0.62,P=0.007).Conclusion:Activated NK cells can reduce the risk of postoperative recurrence of differentiated thyroid cancer and prolong the disease-free survival of patients,which is an independent protective factor against postoperative recurrence of differentiated thyroid cancer.