Survival in rectal cancer is predicted by T cell infiltration of tumour-associated lymphoid nodules
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Lymphoid nodules are a normal component of the mucosa of the rectum, but little is known about their function and whether they contribute to the host immune response in malignancy. In rectal cancer specimens from patients with local (n=18), regional (n=12) and distant (n=10) disease, we quantified T cell (CD3, CD25) and dendritic cell (CD1a, CD83) levels at the tumour margin as well as within tumour-associated lymphoid nodules. In normal tissue CD3+, but not CD25+, T cells are concentrated at high levels within lymphoid nodules, with significantly fewer cells found in surrounding normal mucosa (P=0.001). Mature (CD83), but not immature (CD1a), dendritic cells in normal tissue are also found clustered almost exclusively within lymphoid nodules (P=<0.0001). In rectal tumours, both CD3+ T cells (P=0.004) and CD83+ dendritic cells (P=0.0001) are also localized preferentially within tumour-associated lymphoid nodules. However, when comparing tumour specimens to normal rectal tissue, the average density of CD3+ T cells (P=0.0005) and CD83+ dendritic cells (P=0.0006) in tumour-associated lymphoid nodules was significantly less than that seen in lymphoid nodules in normal mucosa. Interestingly, regardless of where quantified, T cell and dendritic cell levels did not depend upon the stage of disease. Increased CD3+ T cell infiltration of tumour-associated lymphoid nodules predicted improved survival, independent of stage (P=0.05). Other T cell (CD25) markers and different levels of CD1a+ or CD83+ dendritic cells did not predict survival. Tumour-associated lymphoid nodules, enriched in dendritic cells and T cells, may be an important site for antigen presentation and increased T cell infiltration may be a marker for improved survival.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".