TABLE 1.
B cell and TLS presence and abundance as prognostic factors in different tumors.
| Author, year | Tumor type | N | Sample type | Method of assessment | Finding |
| B lymphocytes | |||||
| Ladanyi et al. (2011) | Cutaneous melanoma | 106 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | High number of CD20+ B cells (intratumoral and peritumoral) associated with improved OS |
| Mahmoud et al. (2012) | Breast cancer | 1,470 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | Higher total CD20+ B cell counts associated with better DFI and BCSS |
| Woo et al. (2014) | Prostate carcinoma | 53 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | Intratumoral CD20+ B cells associated with cancer recurrence and progression |
| Germain et al. (2014) | Lung cancer | 74 early stage 122 advanced stage |
FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | High density of follicular CD20+ B cells within TLSs associated with better OS |
| Castino et al. (2016) | Pancreatic cancer | 104 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | High density of B cells within TLSs associated with improved DSS. |
| Miligy et al. (2017) | Breast DCIS | 36 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | High number of CD20+ B cells associated with shorter RFI |
| Sakimura et al. (2017) | Gastric cancer | 226 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | High number of CD20+ B cells associated with longer OS |
| Arias-Pulido et al. (2018) | Inflammatory breast cancer | 221 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | CD20+PD-L1+ lymphocytes were an independent favorable prognostic factor for DFS and BCSS |
| Edin et al. (2019) | Colorectal | 316 | FFPE | Multiplexed immunohistochemistry and multispectral imaging | High number of CD20+ B cells associated with improved DSS |
| Murakami et al. (2019) | Gastric cancer | 59 | FFPE | Double staining immunohistochemistry (CD19 and IL-10) | Regulatory B cells (CD19+IL10+) associated with worse 5-year OS rate |
| Chen et al. (2020) | NK/T-cell lymphoma | 56 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | High density of CD20+ B cells associated with improved OS |
| Petitprez et al. (2020) | Sarcoma | 496 | STS public datasets (TCGA SARC, GSE21050, GSE21122 and GSE30929) |
Gene expression (TME deconvolution) | B cell signature associated with improved OS |
| TLS | |||||
| Coppola et al. (2011) | Colorectal cancer | 21 | Fresh tumor | Microarray | Higher expression of a 12-chemokine TLS signature in long-term survivors |
| Vayrynen et al. (2014) | Colorectal cancer | 418 (cohort 1) | FFPE | H&E | Higher TLS density (the number of follicles/the length of the invasive front) associated with improved 5-year survival |
| Hiraoka et al. (2015) | Pancreatic cancer | 308 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | Higher relative area of intratumoral TLSs associated with improved OS and DFS |
| Schweiger et al. (2016) | Colorectal cancer (lung metastases) | 57 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | The presence of TLSs was not associated with improved RFS or OS |
| Lee H.J. et al. (2016) | Resected triple negative breast cancer | 769 | FFPE | H&E | Moderate or abundant TLSs associated with better DFS |
| Liu X. et al., 2017 | Invasive breast cancer | 248 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | Presence of TLS associated with improved DFS in HER2+ tumors |
| Silina et al. (2018) | Resected squamous cell lung carcinoma | 138 | FFPE | H&E | Number of TLSs per mm2 was the strongest prognostic factor |
| Calderaro et al. (2019) | Resected hepatocellular carcinoma | 273 | FFPE | H&E | Presence of intratumoral TLSs associated with lower risk of early tumor relapse following surgery |
| Sofopoulos et al. (2019) | Ductal breast carcinoma | 112 | FFPE | H&E | Patients with peritumoral TLSs had worse DFS and OS |
| Cabrita et al. (2020) | Cutaneous melanoma | 117 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | Presence of TLSs and tumor associated CD8+ cells associated with improved OS |
| Li et al. (2020) | Resected oral cancer | 65 | FFPE | H&E | Patients whose tumors were enriched for intratumoral TLSs had better DFS and OS |
| Tang et al. (2020) | Lung cancer | 133 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | High TLS number per mm2 and relative area associated with improved 10-year survival |
| Rakaee et al. (2021) | Lung cancer | 553 | FFPE | Immunohistochemistry | TLS score was an independent positive prognostic factor of DFS and OS, regardless of the quantification strategy used (four-scale semi-quantitative; absolute count of total TLSs; absolute count of total TLSs with germinal center) |
TLS, tertiary lymphoid structures; FFPE, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples; DFI, disease-free interval; BCSS, breast cancer specific survival; RFI, relapse-free interval; DCIS, ductal carcinoma in situ; DSS, disease-specific survival; OS, overall survival; STS, soft tissue sarcoma; RFS, recurrence-free survival; H&E, hematoxylin and eosin staining.