Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 21, 2022; 10(3): 856-869
Published online Jan 21, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i3.856
Evaluating tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in hepatocellular carcinoma using hematoxylin and eosin-stained tumor sections
Min Du, Yu-Meng Cai, Yu-Lei Yin, Li Xiao, Yuan Ji
Min Du, Yu-Lei Yin, Li Xiao, Department of Pathology, Huadong Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, Shanghai Province, China
Yu-Meng Cai, Yuan Ji, Department of Pathology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, Shanghai Province, China
Author contributions: Du M performed the research; Cai YM contributed to data collection and analysis; Yin YL and Xiao L helped in data analysis and modification of the manuscript; Yuan J contributed to the conception and design of the study; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Human Ethics Institutional Review Board of Huadong Hospital, Fudan University (approval number 2019K119).
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was waived by the Review Board because of the nature of retrospective study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no financial relationships to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yuan Ji, MD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Teacher, Department of Pathology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui Area, Shanghai 200032, Shanghai Province, China. ji.yuan@zs-hospital.sh.cn
Received: August 18, 2021
Peer-review started: August 18, 2021
First decision: September 29, 2021
Revised: October 13, 2021
Accepted: December 23, 2021
Article in press: December 23, 2021
Published online: January 21, 2022
Processing time: 150 Days and 4.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Successful use of immunotherapy in tumors starve for widely applicable, accessible and reliable immune-oncology biomarkers. Assessing tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained tissues showed great clinical validity and utility in many solid tumors. However, barely any research on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been published. TILs evaluated in H&E-stained HCC tissues showed a great prognostic effect for recurrence in the present study and might be helpful to select patients with the highest likelihood of responding to immunotherapeutic agents. The method has low requirements in terms of technical and economic costs and can be easily applied in routine practice.