Obeid et al., 2016 Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy 66(1): 33-43

INTRODUCTION:

Infiltration of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by CD8⁺ T lymphocytes predicts improved patient survival; however, heterogeneity of intratumoral localization complicates this assessment. Strategies for tumor sampling may not accurately represent the whole tumor. We hypothesized that sampling strategies may alter the identification of tumors with high CD8 density and affect the prognostic significance.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

Twenty-three primary NSCLC tumors were immunohistochemically stained for CD8 and were assessed using automated software with eight different sampling strategies or the whole tumor. Results of all sampling strategies were compared to the whole tumor counts (paired t tests, Pearson's r). Associations between CD8 d…