(October 20, 2017) An international, large scale study may have found a link between high-grade ovarian cancer and a type of white blood cell known as a tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte. Recently published in JAMA Oncology, the article from the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis Consortium discussed the study, which involved about 5,500 patients, 3,196 of whom had high-grade ovarian cancer. Although it was previously established that high grade ovarian cancer tumors contain cyctotoxic CD8, a type of tumor infiltrating lymphocyte, the study found a direct correlation between the levels of CD8 and survival: the higher the CD8 level, the better the survival for patients.
“Developing a better understanding of factors that increase cytotoxic CD8 tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes will be the key to developing treatments to achieve better outcomes in treating patients with high-grade ovarian cancer,” concludes Matthew Block, MD, PhD, co leader of the team at Mayo Clinic.
