Table II.
Main characteristics of the included studies
| Author, year [ref.] | Country | Sample number (male/female) | Lymph node metastasis (positive/negative) | Tumor stage (I/II/III/IV) | Detection method | TILs phenotype | TILs location | Cut-off for overexpression | Follow-up [months] Median (range) | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grogg 2003 [14] | America | 110 (72/38) | 29/81 | 15/15/43/37 | HE | TIL | IT | Median | 1–131 | OS |
| Lee 2008 [15] | Korea | 220 (156/164) | 165/55 | 67/53/55/45 | IHC | CD3, CD8 | IT | 75th percentile | 66.4 (1–108) | OS |
| Perrone 2008 [16] | Italy | 110 (53/57) | 79/31 | NA | IHC | FOXP3 | IT | Median | 36–108 | OS, RFS |
| Haas 2009 [17] | Germany | 52 (40/12) | 28/24 | 20/19/10/3 | IHC | FOXP3, CD3, CD8, GrB | TS, TP | Median | 61 (36–132) | DFS |
| Shen 2010 [18] | China | 135 (90/45) | 84/51 | 40/28/60/7 | IHC | FOXP3, CD4, CD8 | IT | Median | 57 (5–120) | OS |
| Kashimura 2011 [19] | Japan | 123 (89/34) | 42/81 | 80/10/13/20 | IHC | FOXP3 | IT | Median | 1–108 | OS, DFS |
| Kim HI 2011 [20] | Korea | 180 (126/54) | 107/73 | 0/81/99/0 | IHC | CD3, CD4, CD8 FOXP3, GrB | IT | Median | 45 | OS |
| Wang 2011 [21] | China | 107 (69/38) | 69/38 | NA | IHC | FOXP3 | IT, PT | Median | 62 (2–120) | OS |
| Chen 2012 [22] | China | 152 (117/35) | 98/35 | 10/31/93/18 | HE | TIL | TN | 19.05/HPF | 12–144 | OS, DFS |
| Kim KJ 2013 [23] | Korea | 99 (55/44) | 57/42 | Not clear | IHC | CD8 | IT | Median and 60th percentile | 59 (1–96) | OS |
| Kim JW 2014 [24] | Korea | 243 (152/91) | 124/119 | 120/41/82/0 | IHC | CD3, CD4, CD8 | IT | Median | 74 (0–123) | OS, DFS |
| Arigami 2014 [25] | Japan | 120 (74/46) | 66/54 | 46/16/36/22 | IHC | CD3 | IT | Median | 36 (1–112) | OS |
| Geng 2014 [26] | China | 100 (61/39) | 68/32 | NA | ICH | FOXP3 | IT | 25.0 % field | > 60 | OS |
| Liu 2015 [27] | China | 166 (125/41) | 118/48 | 23/41/80/22 | IHC | CD3, CD4, CD8, FOXP3 | IT, PT | Median | 79.59 (36–96) | OS |
| Kang 2016 [28] | Korea | 120 (96/24) | 33/87 | 74/26/19/1 | HE | TIL | TS | Median | 22.2 (2.1–50.8) | RFS, DFS |
| Kawazoe 2016 [29] | Japan | 487 (327/160) | 449/38 | 0/0/358/129 | IHC | CD3, CD4, CD8, FOXP3 | IT | Median | NA | OS |
| Kim EK 2016 [30] | Korea | 396 (270/126) | 246/156 | 165/77/143/11 | ICH | CD3, FOXP3 | IT | Mean value | 53.9 (0–84.5) | OS |
| Dong 2016 [31] | China | 100 (72/28) | NA | 0/36/34/30 | ICH | CD8 | IT | Median | 36.5 (2–88) | OS, DFS |
TIL – tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte, PT – peritumoral, IT – intratumoral, TS – tumor stroma, TN – tumor nest, TP – tumor parenchyma, OS – overall survival, DFS – disease-free survival, RFS – relapse-free survival, NA – not available, IHC – immunohistochemistry, HE – hematoxylin-eosin, DFS – disease-free survival.