Infiltration of CD8+ T cells in non-small cell lung cancer is associated with dedifferentiation of cancer cells, but not with prognosis.

CD8+ T cells infiltrating within cancer cell nests in human colorectal cancer were associated with a favorable patients' survival, suggesting the presence of anti-tumor immunity. The present study was designed to examine this concept in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by a retrospective analysis of 128 surgically resected cases. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that the number of CD8+ T cells within cancer cell nests in NSCLC was related to the histological subtype (large cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma > adenocarcinoma) and the degree of dedifferentiation (undifferentiated type > differentiated type). In contrast to colorectal cancer, the number of CD8+ T cells in NSCLC had no statistically significant impact on the patients' survival. The present study demonstrated that the degree of infiltration of CD8+ T cells within cancer cell nests is dependent on the dedifferentiation of cancer cells in NSCLC, which could be one of the important aspects for the study of tumor immunity.