The cellular kinetics and significance of intra-tumoral immune cells within oral squamous cell carcinomas

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The MICA (MHC class I chain-related molecule A) is the ligand of NKG2D, which is activation receptor on most NK cells and antigen-specific effector T cells. These molecules are absent from most cells but can be induced by stress, infection, cell transformation, and are frequently expressed in epithelial tumors. On the other hand, it has been speculated that tumors have ways of evading the body's immune system. As one of the system of this, there are soluble forms of MICA (sMICA) in the serum which can affect NKG2D function by blocking recognition of membrane-bound MICA and down-regulation of NKG2D. As a result, NK cells etc. effectively become blind to the presence of tumor. Serum sMICA level may serve as a novel molecular target/biomarker of OSCC for its diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis. Recently, it has been shown that immune cells within distinct tumor regions could provide a prognostic factor superior to and independent of criteria related to the anatomic extent of the tumor.