2.2 DC plays an important role in NSCLC
As a professional antigen-presenting cell, DC plays a vital role in NSCL
prognosis[96]. The proportion of DCs positively
correlates with the progression-free survival of NSCLC. The expression
of certain genes, such as TOP2A and TLR3, is related to DC infiltration
in NSCLC. Based on the recent findings related to gene expression
characteristics and DC infiltration in NSCLC patients, effective
strategies for patients with refractory cancer can be designed[97]. The plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and
myeloid dendritic cells (mDC) are the main DCs in NSCLC[98].
Zahran et al demonstrated the
possible impact of pDC and mDC on the treatment outcome of NSCLC. Zahran
et al reported that higher levels of pDCs in the peripheral blood of
NSCLC patients were related to a good NSCLC prognosis, lower tumor stage
and longer mean overall survival time (OS). However, mDCs are the
opposite[99-100]. Bianchi et al. reported that the
overall survival positively correlated with the proportion of TLR3-CD1-3+ dendritic cells and the corresponding activation of
CD8+T cells [101]. The
maturation rate of DC is significantly lower in healthy individuals than
in NSCLC patients. The main manifestations of poor tumor prognosis are
as follows: lack of functional DCs in the lung tumor lesions;
recruitment of pDC to the surrounding lung tumor tissues; Lung
tumor-induced regulatory DC; underexpression of DC effector molecules in
the lung tumors; secretion of immunosuppressive molecules by
infiltrating DCs in the Lung cancer tissue [102].