• Witold Zgodzinski, Ewelina Grywalska, Krzysztof Zinkiewicz, Agata Surdacka, Marek Majewski, Artur Zakoscielny, Pawel Bury, Jacek Rolinski, and Grzegorz T Wallner.
• 2 Department of General, Gastrointestinal Surgery and Surgical Oncology of the Alimentary Tract, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland.
• Arch Med Sci. 2019 May 1; 15 (3): 774-783.

IntroductionProgrammed death-1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) function as an immune checkpoint pathway that can be exploited by tumor cells to evade immuno-surveillance. The precise role of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition of the immune response in GC is unknown. The study investigated PD-1 and PD-L1 expression on peripheral T-cells and its potential association with clinicopathological features in gastric cancer (GC) patients.Material And MethodsPD-1/PD-L1 expression on CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cells from peripheral blood of 40 patients primarily diagnosed with advanced GC was evaluated by multicolor flow cytometry.ResultsThe frequency of CD4(+)PD-1(+) and CD8(+)PD-1(+) cells in GC patients was higher than in the control group (p < 0.0001 and p < 0.01, respectively). Expression of PD-1 on CD8(+) cells in GC was higher than in the control group (p < 0.0001). The frequency of CD4(+)PD-L1(+) and CD8(+)PD-L1(+) cells was higher than in the control group (p < 0.0001). Expression of PD-L1 on CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells in GC was higher than in the control group (p < 0.0001). A higher frequency of CD4(+)PD-1(+) cells was found in diffuse-type compared to intestinal tumors (p < 0.029). A higher frequency of CD8(+)PD-1(+) cells was found in patients with poorly differentiated compared to well/moderately differentiated tumors (p < 0.019).ConclusionsDownregulation of peripheral blood CD4(+) and CD8(+) lymphocytes can be associated with PD-1/PD-L1 expression. This can lead to attenuation of the general immune response in GC.

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