ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Thoracic Oncology
This article is part of the Research TopicNovel Theragnostic Approaches in Thoracic MalignanciesView all 3 articles
CD20+ and CD204+ exhibit distinct prognostic associations in thymic epithelial tumors
Provisionally accepted
- 1West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- 2sichuan cancer hospital, 9623.1030851, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs), encompassing thymomas and thymic carcinomas, are rare malignancies originating from thymic epithelial cells. This study aimed to characterize tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIIC) within the tumor microenvironment (TME) and evaluate their prognostic significance in TETs. We retrospectively analyzed 125 patients with surgically resected TETs (2009-2021). Immunohistochemical staining of tumor specimens was performed to assess TIIC distribution, with significant associations between immune markers and survival outcomes evaluated using Cox regression. Among the analyzed markers, CD20, CD204, CD206, and CD47 emerged as potential predictors for disease-free survival (DFS), while CD20 and CD204 showed prognostic relevance for overall survival (OS). Specifically, stromal CD20+ TIIC density was independently associated with prolonged DFS(HR=4.74, 95% CI(1.673-13.434), P=0.003) and OS (HR=5.086, 95% CI(1.391-18.594), P=0.014), whereas elevated CD204+ TIIC infiltration correlated with reduced DFS(HR=0.154, 95% CI(0.043-0.547), P=0.004) and OS(HR=0.169, 95% CI(0.056-0.607), P=0.002). These findings suggest that targeting M2 macrophage-driven immunosuppression may enhance therapeutic efficacy in TETs.
Keywords: Thymic Epithelial Tumors, The tumor microenvironment, Tumor-associated macrophages, CD20, CD204
Received: 22 Sep 2025; Accepted: 29 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, zhang, feng, Chaowen, su and Yao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenxiu Yao, ywxhlx@sina.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.