Tumor infiltrating T cells influence prognosis in stage I–III non-small cell lung cancer

Worldwide, lung cancer harbors paramount position in cancer specific incidence and still is the leading cause of cancer related mortality (1). Despite awareness campaigns, relative incidence ratios of lung cancer in young women resident in western countries are rising (2). With respect to histology, two major subtypes must be distinguished. Whereas non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) comprises about 85% of all new-diagnosed cases, small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is the less common (~14%) but more aggressive subtype (3). By genotyping (4) and sequencing oncogene and tumor suppressor gene loci (5), the latter entity of SCLC is nowadays assorted with large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas (LCNEC), typical carcinoids and atypical carcinoids (5-7). Albeit the reclassification of large cell carcinoma (LCC), two distinct histopathological entities represent classical NSCLC subtypes (8,9), i.e., adenocarcinoma (ADC) of the lung and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lung