Quantification of CD3, FoxP3, and granzyme B immunostaining in canine renal cell carcinoma.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) density plays an important role in anti-tumor immunity and is associated with patient outcome in various human and canine malignancies. As a first assessment of the immune landscape of the tumor microenvironment in canine renal cell carcinoma (RCC), we retrospectively analyzed clinical data and quantified CD3, FoxP3, and granzyme B immunostaining in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples from 16 dogs diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma treated with ureteronephrectomy. Cell density was low for all markers evaluated. Increased numbers of intratumoral FoxP3 labelled (+) cells, as well as decreased granzyme B+: FoxP3+ TIL ratio, were associated with poor patient outcomes. Our initial study of canine RCC reveals that these tumors are immunologically cold and Tregs may play an important role in immune evasion.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Matthew Atherton reports financial support was provided by National Institutes of Health, NCI, K08CA252619. Charles-Antoine Assenmacher reports financial support was provided by National Institutes of Health Shared Instrumentation Grant (S10 OD023465–01A1). Charles-Antoine Assenmacher reports financial support was provided by Abramson Cancer Center (P30 CA016520). Jennifer Lenz reports financial support was provided by Miso Harris Fund donated to Penn Vet Comprehensive Cancer Care service. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)