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Departments of 1 Urology, 2 Immunology, 3 Health Sciences Research, and 4 Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Medical School, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota and 5 Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida
Requests for reprints: Eugene D. Kwon, Departments of Urology and Immunology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street Southwest, Rochester, MN 55905. Phone: 507-284-8371; Fax: 507-284-4987; E-mail: kwon.eugene{at}mayo.edu.
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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| Materials and Methods |
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From this Registry, we identified 427 patients treated with nephrectomy for unilateral, sporadic clear cell RCC between 1990 and 1994. Of these, 306 (71.7%) had archived paraffin-embedded tissue available for study. There was no difference in patient outcome between patients with and without tissue available for study (P = 0.965, log-rank test). The cancer-specific survival rates (SE, number still at risk) at 5 years for patients with and without tissue available for study were 73.2% (2.7%, 188) and 78.1% (3.9%, 81), respectively.
Immunohistochemistry. Tumor sections were deparaffinized in xylene and rehydrated in a graded series of alcohols. Slides were unmasked in Target Retrieval Solution (DakoCytomation, Glostrup, Denmark) using a Decloaking Chamber (Biocare Medical, Walnut Creek, CA). Following unmasking, slides were blocked for endogenous peroxidase for 5 minutes with a peroxidase blocking solution (DakoCytomation), rinsed in TBS with 0.1% Tween 20 (TBST), and incubated for 30 minutes with 1.5% normal horse serum in TBST (DakoCytomation). Slides were rinsed in TBST and blocked for endogenous avidin and biotin using an Avidin/Biotin Blocking kit (Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, CA). Slides were then incubated overnight at 4°C with anti-B7-H1 (clone 5H1) at 1:100. This step was followed by 30 minutes of incubation with biotinylated horse anti-mouse immunoglobulin G and avidin/biotin complex (ABC) reagent from a Vectastain Elite ABC kit (Vector Laboratories). Slides were amplified using a Tyramide Signal Amplification Biotin System (Perkin-Elmer, Boston, MA) and incubated in 3-amino-9-ethylcarbazole chromogen (Biocare Medical). Irrelevant isotype-matched antibodies were used to control for nonspecific staining.
To validate the specificity of 5H1 for B7-H1 in paraffin specimens, we did immunohistochemical blocking studies in a competition assay. These studies were done by pre-exposing anti-B7-H1 (clone 5H1) with a B7-H1 fusion protein (5) before immunohistochemical staining. Paraffin-embedded, B7-H1-transduced 624mel melanoma cells (positive control), non-B7-H1-transduced parental melanoma cells (negative control), and RCC tumor specimens were immunohistochemically stained with unblocked anti-B7-H1 as well as fusion proteinblocked anti-B7-H1 antibody. These studies show that B7-H1 staining on RCC as well as B7-H1-transduced melanoma is eliminated by blocking using the fusion protein (Fig. 1 ). Thus, the anti-B7-H1 antibody employed in our study shows an appropriate level of specificity for the B7-H1 protein in paraffin-embedded tumor specimens.
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Statistical methods. Associations of B7-H1 expression with pathologic features of interest [tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage groupings, tumor size, nuclear grade, and tumor necrosis] were evaluated using
2 tests. Cancer-specific and progression-free survival were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Causes of death other than RCC were censored for the estimation of cancer-specific survival. The associations of B7-H1 expression with outcome were evaluated using Cox proportional hazards regression models univariately and after adjusting for 2002 TNM stage (analyzed using three indicator variables for stages II, III, and IV, with stage I as the reference), nuclear grade (analyzed using two indicator variables for grades 3 and 4, with grades 1 and 2 as the reference), and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (analyzed using one indicator variable for ECOG
1, with ECOG 0 as the reference), and after adjusting for the Mayo Clinic Stage, Size, Grade, and Necrosis Score (TNM stage, tumor size, nuclear grade, and coagulative tumor necrosis), a prognostic composite score developed specifically for patients with clear cell RCC (ref. 12; analyzed as a continuously scaled variable). Statistical analyses were done using the SAS software package (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). All P values were two sided and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
| Results |
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Tumor B7-H1 expression. Seventy-three (23.9%) patients had positive tumor B7-H1 staining. To evaluate the association of B7-H1 with tumor biology, a comparison of the pathologic features correlated with B7-H1 is shown in Table 1
. Patients with tumor B7-H1 were more likely to exhibit adverse pathologic features including 2002 TNM stage III or IV, tumor size of
5 cm, nuclear grade 3 or 4, and coagulative tumor necrosis (P < 0.001 for all). There was not a statistically significant difference in ECOG performance status between patients with and without tumor B7-H1 expression (P = 0.435).
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| Discussion |
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Discovered in 1999 by Dong et al. (5), B7-H1 is a cell-surface glycoprotein within the B7 family of T-cell costimulatory molecules. Constitutive expression of B7-H1 is normally restricted to macrophage-lineage cells (5). In contrast, several human cancers, including breast, ovarian, lung, colon, lymphoma, and melanoma, have now been reported to aberrantly express B7-H1 (6, 8, 9). Tumor cell expression of B7-H1 has been shown to inhibit tumor-specific T-cellmediated immunity by inducing T-cell apoptosis, impairing cytokine production, and diminishing the cytotoxicity of activated T cells (6, 1517). Furthermore, murine tumors expressing B7-H1 have been reported to abrogate immune-mediated tumor regression following adoptive transfer of tumor antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell clones and treatment with agonistic costimulatory antibodies that promote T-cell activation (14). Consistent with this, in vivo blockade of B7-H1 can potentiate antitumor T-cell responses directed against immunogenic murine tumors expressing B7-H1 either endogenously or following B7-H1 gene transduction (6, 14, 15). Thus, preclinical studies support that B7-H1 blockade can be used to enhance antitumor immunity in murine cancer models (13, 14).
RCC is regarded as an immunogenic tumor. High levels of infiltrating T cells within RCC tumors are frequently observed but paradoxically associated with diminished cancer-specific patient survival (18). Consistent with this, infiltrating lymphocytes within RCC tumors are often impaired and incapable of mediating tumor destruction (13). These observations collectively suggest that RCC tumors possess mechanisms to undermine spontaneous or immunotherapy-induced antitumor immunity. The results of our study suggest that tumor B7-H1, at least in part, contributes to the profile of immunosuppression observed in RCC patients. As such, blockade of B7-H1 may theoretically permit immune-mediated tumor destruction for this treatment-refractory malignancy.
Our observation that B7-H1 is associated with cancer progression may have important implications for the management of advanced RCC. Currently, TNM stage, nuclear grade, and patient performance status represent the most commonly used clinical predictors of outcome for patients with RCC (19). Survival among RCC patients using these predictive indices, however, tends to be variable, highlighting the heterogeneous behavior of RCC tumors (20). Hence, we and others have reported additional features of RCC, including coagulative tumor necrosis, histologic subtype, and tumor size, which independently predict outcome. In the current study, we show that tumor B7-H1 independently identifies patients at risk for cancer progression. Even among patients with seemingly localized disease, median time to progression was <1 year when B7-H1 was aberrantly expressed by the tumor (0.7 versus 2.9 years, respectively). Thus, the assessment of tumor B7-H1 not only identifies patients at risk for relapse but identifies patients at risk for rapid metastatic dissemination. Prospective studies are now warranted to validate the prognostic value of B7-H1, particularly when used to identify patients for adjunctive therapy.
One limitation of this study merits discussion. The percentage of patients with B7-H1-positive tumors assessed in paraffin-embedded tissue is lower compared with our analysis of fresh-frozen tissue (10, 11). We previously reported that 37% of 196 patients had high tumor B7-H1 expression and that these patients were at significant risk of cancer-specific mortality, albeit with limited follow-up. In the current study, only 24% of 306 patients had B7-H1-positive tumors. This discrepancy may reflect the denaturant effect of formalin fixation on protein, which frequently compromises antigen staining during immunohistochemistry. Thus, we are likely underestimating the presence of B7-H1 in clear cell RCC and possibly underestimating the true association between B7-H1 and survival. However, the associations between tumor B7-H1 and outcome observed in the current study are generally consistent with those we reported using fresh-frozen tissues (10, 11). We believe that B7-H1 staining of paraffin-embedded tissues provides important prognostic information and further study is warranted to determine if manipulation of B7-H1 with therapeutic intent improves outcome for this refractory tumor.
| Conclusion |
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| Acknowledgments |
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We thank Ricardo V. Lloyd, M.D., Ph.D., and Xiang Qian, M.D., Ph.D., for their insight and discussions during manuscript preparation, Lieping Chen, M.D. (Departments of Dermatology and Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD), for providing us with the 5H1 antibody, and the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research for their kind support.
| Footnotes |
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Received 12/ 2/05. Revised 1/14/06. Accepted 2/22/06.
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