Cancer-related immunity plays a significant role in the outcome of ovarian cancer,
but the exact mechanisms are not fully explored. A retrospective, real-life observational
study was conducted including 57 advanced ovarian cancer patients. Immunohistochemistry
for CD4+, CD8+, and CD45+ was used for assessing tumor-infiltrating immune cells.
Furthermore, an immune-related gene expression assay was performed on 12–10 samples
from patients with less than and more than 1-year overall survival (OS), respectively.
A higher number of CD4+ (p = 0.0028) and CD45+ (p = 0.0221) immune cells within the
tumor microenvironment were associated with longer OS of patients. In a multivariate
setting, higher CD4+ T cell infiltration predicted longer OS (p = 0.0392). Twenty-three
differentially expressed genes—involved in antigen presentation, costimulatory signaling,
matrix remodeling, metastasis formation, and myeloid cell activity—were found when
comparing the prognostic groups. It was found that tumor-infiltrating immune cell
counts are associated with peculiar gene expression patterns and bear prognostic information
in ovarian cancer. SOX11 expression emerged and was validated as a predictive marker
for OS.
