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Updated: Jul 1, 2025
Radiation Treatment of Organotypic Cultures from Submandibular and Parotid Salivary Glands Models Key In Vivo Characteristics
Published on: May 17, 2019
The tumor microenvironment of benign and malignant salivary gland tumors
Katherine C Wai1,2,3, Trine Line H Okholm1,2,3, Patrick K Ha1,3
1Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
Background:
Treatment of salivary gland tumors (SGTs) remains challenging. Little is known about the immune landscape of SGTs. We aimed to characterize the tumor microenvironment in benign and malignant SGTs.
Methods:
Eleven benign and nine malignant tumors were collected from patients undergoing curative intent surgery. Specimens were analyzed using mass cytometry by time-of-flight. Immune cell populations were manually gated, and T cells were clustered using the FlowSOM algorithm. Population frequencies were compared between high-grade and low-grade malignancies, corrected for multiple hypothesis testing.
Results:
There were trends towards increased CD4+ and CD8+ T cells among malignant tumors. High-grade malignancies exhibited trends towards higher frequencies of CD8+ PD-1+ CD39+ CD103+ exhausted T cells, CD4+ FoxP3+ TCF-1+ CD127- Tregs, and CD69+ CD25- CD4+ T cells compared to low-grade malignancies.
Conclusion:
SGTs exhibit significant immunologic diversity. High-grade malignancies tended to have greater infiltration of exhausted CD8+ T cells and Tregs, which may guide future studies for immunotherapy strategies.
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