Abstract 112P
Background
Currently, there is a deeper knowledge about immunological changes occurring with aging (immunosenescence) in healthy population. We aimed to study if clinical parameters besides age can influence immunological status in patients with NSCLC.
Methods
We conducted a prospective descriptive study including patients diagnosed with NSCLC from April-2018 to February-2020 at Hospital U.Dr.Peset. Patient demographics and lymphocyte count by flow cytometry was gathered at baseline using 4 antibodies to determine CD8 and CD4-lymphocyte subpopulations (CD28,CD27,CD57,CD45RA), according to their differentiation: naïve (N), central memory (CM), effector memory (EM), and terminally differentiated (TEMRA). Multivariate models were used to assess the impact of clinical features (age, ECOG, weight loss % and stage) on CD8 and CD4-lymphocyte subpopulation distribution (%).
Results
98 patients included. Median age: 67.5 (42-85); 81.6% males; 65.3% ECOG 0-1; 92.9% had a smoking habit and 39.8% a significant weight loss (≥5%). Most frequent histology was adenocarcinoma (67.3%) and 50% presented with metastatic disease; whereas 11.2% were stage I-II and 39,8%, locally advanced. On multivariate analysis, regarding CD8+ subsets we found that advanced age was associated with higher % of total CD8(p=.004), EM-CD8 (p=.012) and TEMRA-CD8 (p=.004) and lower % of N-CD8 (p<0.001). Furthermore, patients with advanced stage also presented with higher % of CD8 and TEMRA-CD8 cells (p=.006 and .045, respectively). Interestingly, referring to CD4+ subpopulations, advanced age was only related to higher % of CD4-lymphocytes (p=.012), but higher ECOG(2-3) was related to higher % of N-CD4 and CM-CD4-cells (p=.013 and .031, respectively). Weight loss did not correlate to any of them.
Conclusions
In patients with NSCLC aging correlates with the distribution of CD8+ lymphocytes; however, ECOG-performance status has a deeper impact in the balance of CD4+ cells. Their role is being studied as a prognostic/predictive factor in larger cohorts.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
Doctor Peset University Hospital.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.