2. Patients with cervical cancer display an increase in leukocytes and myeloid cells that express S100A9

YANINA VERONICA LANGLE, ; PABLO DAMIAN CRESTA MORGADO, ; DENISE BELGOROSKY, ; PABLO MARENCO; , PABLO MENÉNDEZ,; VALERIA CÁCERES,; ANDREA AGUILAR, ; MARCELA OSTOJICH,; LAURA LAY, ; ANA MARIA EIJAN; EDUARDO OMAR SANDES

Congreso; AACR ANNUAL MEETING 2021; 2021

AACR

AUTHORS: Yanina Langle, Pablo Cresta Morgado, Denise Belgorosky, Pablo Marenco, Pablo Menéndez, Valeria Cáceres, Andrea Aguilar, Laura Lay, Marcela Ostojich, Ana María Eiján, Eduardo Omar SandesTITLE: Patients with uterine cervical cancer display an increase in leukocytes and myeloid cells that express S100A9SHORT TITLE: Cervical cancer: leukocytes S100A9+ABSTRACTCervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer affecting women worldwide. Leukocytosis have been related with treatment failure in this pathology, associated with the induction and accumulation of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) in peripheral blood. S100A9 proved to be a useful marker to identify MDSC in whole blood from patients with cancer. In this study, we analyse the number of leukocytes that express S100A9, dividing them according to monocytic (CD14+) or granulocytic (CD15+) myeloid populations in patients with local-advanced states of uterine cervical cancer (Ptes) and compared to healthy donors (Crls).Methods: Peripheral blood samples collected from 11 Crls and 19 Ptes with cervical cancer (stage IB3-IVA) treated in our Institution between 2018 and 2020 by concurrent cisplatin chemoradiation followed by brachytherapy. Blood samples (before treatment, before brachytherapy and 7 weeks after treatment) were obtained. Leukocytes from the buffy coat fraction were isolated and stained for S100A9, CD14 and CD15 and then analysed by flow cytometry. The predictive value of S100A9+ cells was examined and associated with therapeutic response.Results: An increase in leukocytes, granulocytes and monocytes positives for S100A9+ were observed in peripheral blood from Ptes with cervical cancer before treatment compared to Crls. Leukocytes: mean Ptes=67.7, Crls=48.6; p=0.0017 -linear regression model-. Granulocytes: mean Ptes=62.5, Crls=45.9; p=0.0073 -linear regression model-. Monocytes: median Ptes=4.62, Crls=2.58; p=0.043 ?Wilcoxon?s test-. We did not find significant differences in the mean values of Pts over treatment. We analysed the response to therapy as categorical variable: complete vs. insufficient response and relating it to S100A9+ cells. Using a logistic regression model, we observed that the percentage of leukocytes and granulocytes positives for S100A9+ showed a trend close to significance of being associated with the therapeutic response (p=0.06 and p=0.057 respectively). In this way it represents that an increase of 1% of leukocytes or granulocytes S100A9+ is associated with a reduction of 9% of odds ratio (OR) of having a complete response. The rest of variables analysed did not shown an association with the therapeutic response.Conclusions: Our study indicate that patients with local-advanced cervical cancer present an increased proportion of total leukocytes and myeloid cells that express S100A9 before treatment. This finding suggest that patients with high amounts of circulating S100A9+ cells before treatment could present a higher risk of therapeutic failure, possible related to a systemic immunosuppressive state mediated by MDSC. Further analysis and a larger cohort of patients with cervical cancer will be necessary to assess the potential role of S100A9+ leukocytes and myeloid cells as predictive markers.