Combined assessment of peritumoral Th1/Th2 polarization and peripheral immunity as a new biomarker in the prediction of BCG response in patients with high-risk NMIBC

ABSTRACTIntravesical Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) remains the most effective treatment for high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), unfortunately there is no validated biomarker to predict clinical outcome. Here we tried to explore the possibility that a combination of the density of peritumoral infiltrating cells (Th1, Th2 and PD-L1) and the composition of peripheral immune cells (neutrophil and lymphocyte counts) could generate a more reliable prognostic biomarker. Twenty-two patients with high-risk NMIBC treated with BCG (10 BCG nonresponders and 12 BCG responders) were selected. BCG responders had significantly lower level of peritumoral T-bet+ cells with an associated higher GATA-3+/T-bet+ ratio (p = 0.04, p = 0.02, respectively). Furthermore, the immune polarization in tissue (GATA-3+/T-bet+ ratio) adjusted for the systemic inflammation (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio) showed a significantly higher association with the BCG response (p = 0.004). A survival analysis demonstrated prolonge...