The proportion of CD15+LOX-1+ PMN-MDSCs is associated with NSCLC prognosis and recurrence after surgery
To confirm the connection between CD15+LOX-1+ PMN-MDSCs and NSCLC prognosis, we detected the CD15+LOX-1+ PMN-MDSC proportion in PB of NSCLC patients before and after surgical operation. The data showed that CD15+LOX-1+ PMN-MDSC frequency decreased significantly at one month after surgery (20.84±1.3420 vs 12.79±0.9396 %, P =0.0058) (Figure 3A). Furthermore, we also measured the percentage of CD15+LOX-1+ PMN-MDSCs in NSCLC patients with or without recurrence after surgery. It was found that frequency of circulating CD15+LOX-1+PMN-MDSCs decreased significantly in NSCLC patients without recurrence compared to that in NSCLC patients with recurrence (13.76±0.9581 vs 19.91±0.7098 %, P =0.0076) (Figure 3B). In these cases, 11 samples could be traced from the NSCLC patients listed in Table 1, in which there were 8 patients without recurrence and 3 patients with recurrence. By comparing the CD15+LOX-1+ PMN-MDSC proportion in different groups, it was further confirmed that CD15+LOX-1+ PMN-MDSCs were related to NSCLC recurrence after surgery (9.944±1.569 vs 21.25±0.7963 %,P <0.0001) (Figure 3C). All these data confirm that circulating CD15+LOX-1+ PMN-MDSC frequency is associated with NSCLC prognosis and recurrence after surgery.