Tumor-infiltrating Lymphocytes, Tumor Characteristics, and Recurrence in Patients With Early Breast Cancer

Abstract

Our data showed that lymph node metastases, immunopositivity of p53 and Ki67, and non-triple-negative tumors were associated with high regulatory T-cell infiltration. The role of immunologic balance as a prognostic marker for recurrence must be evaluated more clearly in the future study.

The Emerging Role of Immunosurveillance in Dictating Metastatic Spread in Breast Cancer

“…The evidence for a role of CTLs in restraining metastases extends beyond mouse models. In humans, tumor-infiltrating CTLs predict favorable prognosis in various cancers, including breast cancer (6,11) and melanoma (12). However, the prognostic benefit of CTLs is not always observed across breast cancer subtypes.…”

Human Adipose-Derived Stromal/Stem Cells Induce Functional CD4+CD25+FoxP3+CD127−Regulatory T Cells Under Low Oxygen Culture Conditions

“…In addition, recent studies have reported a relationship between leukocyte infiltration, an increased ratio of iT reg to CD4 + T cells in primary tumors, and tumor recurrence in breast cancer patients [38,47,56]. In a retrospective study on triple negative breast cancer (stage I to III), Kim et al [56] found that an increased number of FoxP3 + T reg cells were significantly correlated with tumors that exhibited lymph node metastases. There were also significant correlations between the increased ratio of FoxP3 + T reg to CD4 + T cells with lymph node metastasis and expression of the estrogen receptor (ER), p53, and Ki-67 positivity.…”

Immune Blockade Inhibition in Breast Cancer

“…Effector CD8+ cells are the lymphocytes that, when activated, execute the immune surveillance, while regulatory FOXP3+ lymphocytes are inhibitory and impede immune responses having the physiologic role of preventing excessive activation but in the tumor microenvironment they may act as inhibitors of the anti-tumor response. A study in breast cancer patients showed that higher FOXP3+ and lower CD8+ cell infiltrates in the tumor were associated with metastatic disease to the lymph nodes (39). Nevertheless, despite a negative prognostic value in univariate analysis, multivariate analysis concluded that FOXP3+ TILs had no independent prognostic influence in a series of more than 1,400 breast cancer patients, possibly due to association with other immune cell sub-sets and other prognostic factors (40).…”