TFG-beta Nuclear Staining as a Potential Relapse Risk Factor in Early-Stage Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Cárdenas Quesada, Nuria Márquez Lobo, Bélgica Núñez Torres, María Isabel PD-L1 TILs TGF- beta Prognostic factors Checkpoint inhibition Early-stage lung cancer Nowadays, the impact of the tumor-immune microenvironment (TME) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) prognosis and treatment response remains unclear. Thus, we evaluated the expression of PD-L1, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), and transforming growth factor beta (TGF- ) in NSCLC to identify differences in TME, detect possible new prognostic factors, and assess their relationship. We retrospectively analyzed 55 samples from patients who underwent NSCLC surgery and had over a 5-year follow-up. PD-L1 expression was determined by immunohistochemistry following standard techniques. The presence of TILs was evaluated at low magnification and classified into two categories, “intense” and “non-intense”. Cytoplasmic TGF- staining visualization was divided into four categories, and unequivocal nuclear staining in >1% of viable tumor cells was defined as “present” or “absent”. Our aim was to identify differences in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Tumor stage was the only objective prognostic factor for OS. PD-L1 expression and the presence of TILs had no prognostic impact, neither their combination. There seems to be a lower expression of PD-L1 and a higher expression of TILs in early stages of the disease. Our TGF- nuclear staining analysis was promising, since it was associated with worse DFS, revealing this protein as a possible prognostic biomarker of recurrence for resectable NSCLC. 2022-12-13T10:24:00Z 2022-12-13T10:24:00Z 2022-11-09 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Cárdenas-Quesada, N... [et al.]. TFG-beta Nuclear Staining as a Potential Relapse Risk Factor in Early-Stage Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23, 13780. [https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232213780] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/78418 10.3390/ijms232213780 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 4.0 Internacional MDPI