Tumor B7-H3 (CD276) Expression and Survival in Pancreatic Cancer

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine Vol. 7; no. 7; p. 172
• Main Authors: Inamura, Kentaro, Takazawa, Yutaka, Inoue, Yosuke, Yokouchi, Yusuke, Kobayashi, Maki, Saiura, Akio, Shibutani, Tomoko, Ishikawa, Yuichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 10-07-2018
• Subjects: immune checkpoint inhibitor; clinical outcome; immunotherapy; B7-H3; immune modulator; tumor microenvironment; prognosis; pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
• ISSN: 2077-0383; 2077-0383
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm7070172

B7-H3 (CD276), a member of the family of immune modulators, orchestrates antitumor immunity. To date, only small-sized studies have examined the association of B7-H3 expression with survival in pancreatic cancer, yielding inconclusive results. We evaluated tumor B7-H3 expression in 150 consecutive patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma using immunohistochemistry. B7-H3 expression was positive (≥10% tumor cells) in 99 of 150 (66%) cases of pancreatic cancer. We classified the tumors into four groups depending on B7-H3 expression (negative, low, intermediate, and high) and found that higher B7-H3 expression was independently associated with lower disease-free survival (DFS; for high vs. negative B7-H3 expression: multivariable hazard ratio (HR) = 3.12; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.48⁻6.15;
= 0.0026). Furthermore, the association of B7-H3 expression with survival differed according to the pathological stage (p-stage) (
= 0.048, between p-stages I⁻II and III⁻IV). The association of B7-H3 positivity with lower DFS was stronger in tumors with p-stage I⁻II (multivariable HR = 3.10, 95% CI = 1.75⁻5.69;
< 0.0001) than in those with p-stage III⁻IV (multivariable HR = 1.20, 95% CI = 0.67⁻2.28;
= 0.55). We demonstrated that tumor high B7-H3 expression is independently associated with poor survival in patients with pancreatic cancer and that this association is stronger in tumors with p-stage I⁻II than in those with p-stage III⁻IV. B7-H3 expression may be a useful prognostic biomarker for identifying aggressive early-stage pancreatic cancer.