Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are involved in the antitumor immune response. The association between prognosis in patients with TILs and high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) remains obscure, with some studies reporting conflicting results.
We conducted an extensive literature search of electronic databases and retrieved prognostic data of each selected subtype of TILs, including CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD103+, and PD-1+ TILs. The fixed-effects model was applied to derive the pooled hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of these markers.
The systematic review process yielded 19 eligible studies comprising 6004 patients with HGSOC. We compared TIL-positive and TIL-negative patients, and the pooled HRs from the multivariate analysis revealed that intraepithelial CD8+ TILs were positively correlated with progression-free survival (PFS, HR 0.46, 95% CI 0.25–0.67) and overall survival (OS, HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.86–0.9); stromal CD8+ TILs were positively correlated with OS (HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.36–0.87). Furthermore, the pooled HRs from univariate analysis demonstrated that intraepithelial CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, and CD103+ TILs were positively associated with OS (HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.44–0.72; HR 0.37, 95% CI 0.16–0.59; HR 0.51, 95% CI 0.42–0.60, and HR 0.59, 95% CI 0.44–0.74, respectively); stromal CD4+ and CD8+ TILs were significantly associated with OS (HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.32–0.94 and HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.58–0.97, respectively). However, the pooled HR from the multivariate analysis revealed that PD-1+ TILs were not associated with the OS of patients with HGSOC (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.90–1.04).
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