Tumor-Infiltrating Neutrophils after Neoadjuvant Therapy are Associated with Poor Prognosis in Esophageal Cancer

Abstract

Background: In esophageal cancer (EC), there is a paucity of knowledge regarding the interplay between the tumor immune microenvironment and response to neoadjuvant treatment and, therefore, which factors may influence outcomes. Thus, our goal was to investigate the changes in the immune microenvironment with neoadjuvant treatment in EC by assessing the expression of immune related genes and their association with prognosis.

Methods: We examined the transcriptome of paired pre- and post-neoadjuvant treated EC specimens. Based on these findings, we validated the presence of tumor-infiltrating neutrophils using CD15⁺ immunohistochemistry in a discovery cohort of patients with residual pathologic disease. We developed a nomogram as a predictor of progression-free survival (PFS) incorporating the variables CD15⁺ cell count, tumor regression grade, and tumor grade.

Results: After neoadjuvant treatment, there was an increase in genes related to myeloid cell differentiation and a poor prognosis associated with high neutrophil (CD15⁺) counts. Our nomogram incorporating CD15⁺ cell count was predictive of PFS with a C-index of 0.80 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.68-0.9) and a concordance probability estimate (CPE) of 0.77 (95% CI 0.69-0.86), which indicates high prognostic ability. The C-index and CPE of the validation cohort were 0.81 (95% CI 0.69-0.91) and 0.78 (95% CI 0.7-0.86), respectively.

Conclusions: Our nomogram incorporating CD15⁺ cell count can potentially be used to identify patients at high risk of recurrent disease and thus stratify patients who will benefit most from adjuvant treatment.