Prognostic value of regulator T cells in patients with pancreatic cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

This study focused on investigating the relationship between the level of regulatory T cells (Tregs) infiltration and the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients by using meta-analysis to identify new clinical diagnostic markers.We looked through PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for studies published between the database's inception and September 2021. We included studies that looked at the relationship between Tregs and pancreatic cancer prognosis. We exempted duplicate publications, studies without full text, insufficient information, or inability to conduct data extraction, animal experiments, reviews, and systematic reviews. The data were analyzed using STATA 15.1.The pooled results show that high infiltrating Treg is highly correlated with lower OS of pancreatic cancer patients (HR=1.56, 95% CI: 1.23-1.990.000), but not with DFS of patients with pancreatic cancer (HR=1.29, 95% CI: 0.88-1.89, p=0.184). On the other hand, the results show that high infiltrating Treg is significantly associated with lower OS (HR=2.13, 95% CI: 1.70-2.67, p=0.000) and DFS (HR=1.79, 95% CI: 1.12-2.86, p=0.015) in patients from Asia, whereas it is not significantly associated with OS and DFS in patients from Europe and America.This meta-analysis suggests that the assessment of Tregs may help to predict the prognosis in pancreatic cancer patients. Advanced histological techniques for obtaining more detailed information about Treg activity may assist in the identification of novel treatment strategies.