CD47 (don't eat me signal) expression levels and its relationship with clinicopathologic features in early-stage prostate carcinoma

Hüseyin S Semiz; Ülkü Küçük; Erdem Kısa; Merve Keskinkılıç; Dilara Ecem Süyün; Mehmet Emin Arayıcı; Elif Atağ; Aziz Karaoglu

doi:10.1002/pros.24432

CD47 (don't eat me signal) expression levels and its relationship with clinicopathologic features in early-stage prostate carcinoma

Prostate. 2022 Dec;82(16):1564-1571. doi: 10.1002/pros.24432. Epub 2022 Aug 28.

Authors

Hüseyin S Semiz¹, Ülkü Küçük², Erdem Kısa³, Merve Keskinkılıç⁴, Dilara Ecem Süyün⁵, Mehmet Emin Arayıcı⁶, Elif Atağ⁷, Aziz Karaoglu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Oncology, Institute of Oncology, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
² Department of Pathology, Tepecik Education and Research Hospital, Health Science University, Izmir, Turkey.
³ Department of Urology, Tepecik Education and Research Hospital, Health Science University, Izmir, Turkey.
⁴ Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
⁵ Department of Internal Medicine, Tepecik Education and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
⁶ Department of Preventive Oncology, Institute of Health Sciences, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
⁷ Department of Medical Oncology, Istanbul Haydarpasa Numune Education and Research Hospital, Health Science University, Istanbul, Turkey.

PMID: 36031743
DOI: 10.1002/pros.24432

Abstract

Background: Prostate cancer is a cancer with poor host immune response and could be defined as a non-T-cell inflamed tumor. Therefore, immunotherapy treatments could not be included in the treatment of prostate cancer until recently. Inadequate antitumoral response is one of the main reasons why tumor cells multiply rapidly and cause lethal results. It was shown that CD47 molecule, which is secreted at high levels by leukemia cells, reduces macrophage-mediated phagocytosis and thus facilitates escape from the antitumoral immune response. The aim of this study was to show don't eat me signaling in prostate carcinoma tissues and its relationship with macrophage polarization.

Materials and methods: A total of 263 patients with a diagnosis of prostatic adenocarcinoma after radical prostatectomy between 2015 and 2020 at our institute were included in the study. CD47, CD68, and CD163 expression levels were examined immunohistochemically (IHC) in these tissues. The relationship of these expression levels with unfavorable prognostic factors and survival for prostate carcinoma was investigated.

Results: In this study, all the operated prostate carcinoma cases had CD47 expression in tumor tissue, but only 52.5% had a high level of expression. Of 263 prostate cancer tissues, 135 (51.3%) showed high expression of CD68 protein and 189 (71.9%) showed high expression of CD163 protein. There was a statistically strong relationship between CD47, CD68, and CD163.

Conclusions: The CD47 molecule is basically a molecule that inhibits macrophage activation. CD68 is mostly used for macrophage classification, while CD163 is used for tumor-associated macrophage classification. Unlike others, we IHC examined CD47, CD68, and CD163 expressions in the surgical materials of patients who were operated for prostate carcinoma. In addition, we concluded that strong CD47 expression was closely associated with strong CD68 and CD163 expression in all tumor samples. However, a significant relationship between these expression levels and survival could not be demonstrated.

Keywords: CD163; CD47; CD68; Macrophage; immunotherapy; prostate cancer.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

CD47 Antigen / chemistry
CD47 Antigen / metabolism
Carcinoma*
Humans
Immunotherapy
Male
Prostate / metabolism
Prostatic Neoplasms* / surgery

Substances

CD47 Antigen
CD47 protein, human