Distribution of DC Subtypes: CD83+, DC-LAMP+, CD1a+, CD1c+, CD123+, and DC-SIGN+ in the Tumor Microenvironment of Endometrial Cancers—Correlation with Clinicopathologic Features

Abstract

Treatment options for endometrial cancer (EC) do not provide satisfactory survival improvement for advanced cases, hence the interest in novel therapies utilizing immunological regulatory mechanisms. Measures to modify the functionality of dendritic cells (DCs) found in TME are intensively investigated, given that DCs play a crucial role in inducing antitumor immunity. Samples of malignant endometrial neoplasms obtained from 94 patients were immunohistochemically stained with selected antibodies. Counts of positively identified DCs were correlated with clinical advancement and histological malignancy of cancers. The most prominent DC subtypes were immature DC-SIGN+ or CD123+. Mature CD83+ DCs were the fewest. We found a significant divergence of grade value distribution between cancers of different DCs’ CD1a+ counts. The DC-LAMP+ count was positively associated with grade. Cancers with the least DC CD1c+ or DC CD123+ had higher pT scores than ones that were more heavily infiltrated. ECs can suppress immune cells, hence the predominance of immature DCs in our samples. Associations between DC counts and clinicopathological features of EC were observed only for a few subsets, which was plausibly due to the low diversity of the obtained samples or the small group size. Predictive abilities of particular DC immune subsets within EC’s TME remain ambiguous, which calls for further research.