Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 24, 2025
Predictive Immune Modeling of Solid Tumors
Published on: February 25, 2020
Myeloid-derived suppressor cells in peripheral blood as predictive biomarkers in patients with solid tumors
Maximilian Möller1, Vanessa Orth1, Viktor Umansky2,3,4
1Department of Surgery, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
Background:
Immunotherapeutic approaches, including immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, are increasingly recognized for their potential. Despite notable successes, patient responses to these treatments vary significantly. The absence of reliable predictive and prognostic biomarkers hampers the ability to foresee outcomes. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the predictive significance of circulating myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) in patients with solid tumors undergoing ICI therapy, focusing on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).
Methods:
A comprehensive literature search was performed across PubMed and EMBASE from January 2007 to November 2023, utilizing keywords related to MDSC and ICI. We extracted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) directly from the publications or calculated them based on the reported data. A hazard ratio greater than 1 indicated a beneficial effect of low MDSC levels. We assessed heterogeneity and effect size through subgroup analyses.
Results:
Our search yielded 4,023 articles, of which 17 studies involving 1,035 patients were included. The analysis revealed that patients with lower levels of circulating MDSC experienced significantly improved OS (HR=2.13 [95% CI 1.51-2.99]) and PFS (HR=1.87 [95% CI 1.29-2.72]) in response to ICI therapy. Notably, heterogeneity across these outcomes was primarily attributed to differences in polymorphonuclear MDSC (PMN-MDSC) subpopulations and varying cutoff methodologies used in the studies. The monocytic MDSC (M-MDSC) subpopulation emerged as a consistent and significant prognostic marker across various subgroup analyses, including ethnicity, tumor type, ICI target, sample size, and cutoff methodology.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that standardized assessment of MDSC, particularly M-MDSC, should be integral to ICI therapy strategies. These cells hold the promise of identifying patients at risk of poor response to ICI therapy, enabling tailored treatment approaches. Further research focusing on the standardization of markers and validation of cutoff methods is crucial for integrating MDSC into clinical practice.
Systematic Review Registration:
https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42023420095, identifier CRD42023420095.
More Related Videos
14:15Preparation of Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells MDSC from Naive and Pancreatic Tumor-bearing Mice using Flow Cytometry and Automated Magnetic Activated Cell Sorting AutoMACS
Published on: June 18, 2012
09:01Analysis of Human T Cell Activity in an Allogeneic Co-Culture Setting of Pre-Treated Tumor Cells
Published on: March 7, 2025
