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Intratumoral CD103‐positive tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes are associated with favourable prognosis in patients with triple‐negative breast cancer
Author(s) -
Park Min H,
Kwon Sun Y,
Choi Jung E,
Gong Gyungyub,
Bae Young K
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
histopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.626
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1365-2559
pISSN - 0309-0167
DOI - 10.1111/his.14126
Subject(s) - medicine , cd8 , breast cancer , tissue microarray , triple negative breast cancer , oncology , immunohistochemistry , cancer , antigen , immunology
Aims Cluster of differentiation 103 (CD103), a marker of tissue resident memory T cells, is expressed on subsets of CD8 + T lymphocytes. We investigated the prognostic significance of CD103 + intra‐epithelial tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes (iTILs) in invasive breast cancer (IBC). Methods and results Immunohistochemistry was performed for CD103, CD8 and TGF‐β isoforms (1, 2 and 3) on tissue microarrays of 1187 IBC samples. CD103 + and CD8 + iTILs were present in 904 (76.2%) and 854 (74%) cases with an overall mean ± standard deviation of 38.2 ± 100.2/mm 2 and 30.4 ± 89.7/mm 2 , respectively. The numbers of CD103 + and CD8 + iTILs were positively correlated, and CD103 + iTILs outnumbered CD8 + iTILs in HER2‐positive and triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC). CD103 + and CD8 + iTIL densities were significantly higher in tumours of histological grade 3, absence of lymphovascular invasion, high Ki‐67 index, high stromal TIL density or TGF‐β3 expression. High CD103 + iTIL density was associated with better disease‐free survival (DFS, P = 0.007), but no significant association was observed for overall survival (OS). Subgroup analysis by cancer molecular subtype showed that CD103 + iTIL count was prognostic only for TNBC (OS, P = 0.035; DFS, P = 0.009). CD8 + iTIL density was significant for DFS, but not for OS, in the entire cohort and TNBC. In multivariate analysis, CD103 + iTIL density was an independent prognostic factor of OS ( P = 0.02) and DFS ( P = 0.007) in TNBC, while CD8 + iTIL density was not significant for survival. Conclusions CD103 iTIL density can serve as a predictor of good prognosis in patients with TNBC.