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  • Clinical Research
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Circulating myeloid-derived suppressor cells and survival in prostate cancer patients: systematic review and meta-analysis

Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases volume 26, pages 41–46 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

Immunotherapy has not achieved improvement of survival in prostate cancer patients. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in tumor microenvironment can hamper its efficacy. Some preclinical studies explored the role of MDSCs in prostate cancer development. We aimed to verify the availability of studies exploring the prognostic effect of circulating MDSCs in prostate cancer patients.

Methods

We systematically selected studies for a meta-analysis, which compares survival between prostate cancer patients with high vs low circulating MDSC levels. We extracted or calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and relative 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in terms of overall survival (OS) from selected studies. We calculated the pooled HR and relative 95% CIs and estimated publication bias.

Results

Among 133 studies retrieved from search on Pubmed, 5 eligible studies (236 prostate cancer patients) met inclusion criteria. High circulating MDSC levels are associated with a worse OS (HR = 2.19; 95%CI = 1.51–3.17). Heterogeneity was not significant (I2 = 0%; p = 0.64). Publication bias was also not significant (Egger’s test, p = 0.09).

Conclusions

High levels of circulating MDSCs induce a worse OS in prostate cancer patients than in those with low levels. This finding supports the importance of MDSC detection and targeting also in prostate cancer patients.

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Fig. 1: Flow chart of study selection process.
Fig. 2: Forest plot of overall survival.
Fig. 3: Funnel plot of overall survival.

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Data availability

Details on extracted data are available by the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Molecular Sciences (DISCLIMO), Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    Giuseppe Bronte & Antonio Domenico Procopio

  2. Clinic of Laboratory and Precision Medicine, National Institute of Health and Sciences on Ageing (IRCCS INRCA), Ancona, Italy

    Giuseppe Bronte & Antonio Domenico Procopio

  3. Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Unit of Medical Oncology and Biomolecular Therapy, University of Foggia, Policlinico Riuniti, Foggia, Italy

    Vincenza Conteduca & Matteo Landriscina

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  1. Giuseppe Bronte
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  2. Vincenza Conteduca
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Contributions

GB, VC, ML, and ADP contributed to the study conception and design, data collection, analysis, manuscript writing, and they read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giuseppe Bronte.

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VC has served as a consultant/advisory board member for Janssen, Astellas, Merck, AstraZeneca, Amgen and Bayer and has received speaker honoraria or travel support from Astellas, Janssen, Ipsen, Bayer. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Bronte, G., Conteduca, V., Landriscina, M. et al. Circulating myeloid-derived suppressor cells and survival in prostate cancer patients: systematic review and meta-analysis. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 26, 41–46 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-022-00615-5

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