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].