Tumor immune contexture predicts recurrence after prostatectomy and efficacy of androgen deprivation and immunotherapy in prostate cancer

Q: What is the main goal of this study on prostate cancer?

To determine whether tumor immune contexture can predict biochemical recurrence-free survival after radical prostatectomy and whether it relates to the efficacy of androgen deprivation therapy and immunotherapy.

Q: How is the tumor immune contexture score (TICS) constructed and validated?

TICS is built using eight immune contexture-related signatures trained on seven cohorts of 1120 patients treated with radical prostatectomy, then evaluated in independent validation cohorts.

Q: What relationship does TICS show with biochemical recurrence-free survival?

Higher TICS is associated with prolonged BCRFS after radical prostatectomy in both training and validation cohorts, with prognostic performance remaining stable across clinical and pathological variables.

Q: How does TICS relate to treatment response to ADT and ipilimumab?

Patients with high TICS show favorable BCRFS with androgen deprivation therapy and with ipilimumab monotherapy, indicating potential utility for patient selection.

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by Himbo

Prostate cancer exhibits substantial interpatient heterogeneity, and the immune microenvironment’s role in predicting biochemical recurrence-free survival after radical prostatectomy and in determining systemic therapy efficacy remains unclear. This study develops a tumor immune contexture score (TICS) from eight immune signatures using multiple prostatectomy cohorts and tests links to treatment response in ADT and ipilimumab cohorts. Results associate high TICS with longer BCRFS and improved risk stratification, while low TICS reflects distinct molecular pathways and fewer infiltrating immune cells.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

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Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Introduction

Han et al. Journal of Translational Medicine (2023) 21:194 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-022-03827-4](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-022-03827-4) Journal of Translational Medicine RESEARCH Open Access Tumor immune contexture predicts recurrence after prostatectomy and efficacy of androgen deprivation and immunotherapy in prostate cancer Sujun Han1†, Taoping Shi2†, Yuchen Liao3†, Dong Chen1, Feiya Yang1, Mingshuai Wang1, Jing Ma 1, Hu Li4, Yu Xu3, Tengfei Zhu3, Wenxi Chen3, Guoqiang Wang3, Yusheng Han3, Chunwei Xu5, Wenxian Wang6, Shangli Cai3, Xu Zhang2* and Nianzeng Xing1* Abstract Background Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men with notable interpatient heterogeneity. Implications of the immune microenvironment in predicting the biochemical recurrence-free survival (BCRFS) after radical prostatectomy and the efficacy of systemic therapies in prostate cancer remain ambiguous. Methods The tumor immune contexture score (TICS) involving eight immune contexture-related signatures was developed using seven cohorts of 1120 patients treated with radical prostatectomy (training: GSE46602, GSE54460, GSE70769, and GSE94767; validation: GSE70768, DKFZ2018, and TCGA) . The association between the TICS and treatment efficacy was investigated in GSE111177 (androgen deprivation therapy [ADT]) and EGAS00001004050 (ipilimumab) . Results A high TICS was associated with prolonged BCRFS after radical prostatectomy in the training (HR = 0 . 32, 95% CI 0.24–0.45, P < 0. 001) and the validation cohorts (HR = 0 .45, 95% CI 0.32–0. 62, P < 0. 001) . The TICS showed stable prognostic power independent of tumor stage, surgical margin, pre-treatment prostatic specific antigen (PSA), and Gleason score (multivariable HR = 0 . 50, 95% CI 0 .39–0. 63, P < 0. 001) . Adding the TICS into the prognostic model constructed using clinicopathological features significantly improved its 1/2/3/4/5-year area under curve (P < 0. 05) . A low TICS was associated with high homologous recombination deficiency scores, abnormally activated pathways concerning DNA replication, cell cycle, steroid hormone biosynthesis, and drug metabolism, and fewer tumor-infiltrating immune cells (P < 0. 05) . The patients with a high TICS had favorable BCRFS with ADT (HR = 0 . 25, 95% CI 0.06–0. 99, P = 0 . 034) or ipilimumab monotherapy (HR = 0 . 23, 95% CI 0.06–0. 81, P = 0 . 012) . Conclusions Our study delineates the associations of tumor immune contexture with molecular features, recurrence after radical prostatectomy, and the efficacy of ADT and immunotherapy. The TICS may improve the existing risk stratification systems and serve as a patient-selection tool for ADT and immunotherapy in prostate cancer. †Sujun Han, Taoping Shi andYuchen Liao contributed equally to this work *Correspondence: Xu Zhang [xzhang@foxmail.com](xzhang@foxmail.com)[ ](xzhang@foxmail.com)Nianzeng Xing [nianzeng2006@vip.sina.com](nianzeng2006@vip.sina.com) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Dom

FAQs

What is the main goal of this study on prostate cancer?

To determine whether tumor immune contexture can predict biochemical recurrence-free survival after radical prostatectomy and whether it relates to the efficacy of androgen deprivation therapy and immunotherapy.

How is the tumor immune contexture score (TICS) constructed and validated?

TICS is built using eight immune contexture-related signatures trained on seven cohorts of 1120 patients treated with radical prostatectomy, then evaluated in independent validation cohorts.

What relationship does TICS show with biochemical recurrence-free survival?

Higher TICS is associated with prolonged BCRFS after radical prostatectomy in both training and validation cohorts, with prognostic performance remaining stable across clinical and pathological variables.

How does TICS relate to treatment response to ADT and ipilimumab?

Patients with high TICS show favorable BCRFS with androgen deprivation therapy and with ipilimumab monotherapy, indicating potential utility for patient selection.

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by Himbo