Reviving up dendritic cells can run cancer immune wheel in non-small cell lung cancer: a prospective two-arm study

Background and aim Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer-related deaths. Dendritic cells (DCs) are heterogeneous components of innate immunity that play a crucial role in the anti-tumor T cell immunity and may represent a promising approach for tumor immunotherapy. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the frequency of the two major subsets of DCs; plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and monocytic dendritic cells (mDCs) in non-small cell lung cancer (NCSLC) and correlating them with different clinicopathologic features and survival outcomes. Patients and methods This study was a case-controlled one, included 50 patients with denovo pathologically confirmed NSCLC and 20 healthy controls of comparable age and gender. After diagnosis and staging of patients, the frequency of DCs was evaluated using flow cytometry. Results We unveiled significantly reduced levels of pDCs ( P = 0.024), and mDCs ( P = 0.013) in NSCLC patients compared to controls. Furthermore, there was a significant accumulation of pDCs in non-metastatic patients compared to metastatic ones ( P