Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2015 | Minireview
Relevance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer
Authors:
Sathana Dushyanthen, Paul A. Beavis, Peter Savas, Zhi Ling Teo, Chenhao Zhou, Mariam Mansour, Phillip K. Darcy, Sherene Loi
Published in:
BMC Medicine
|
Issue 1/2015
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Abstract
While breast cancer has not been considered a cancer amenable to immunotherapeutic approaches, recent studies have demonstrated evidence of significant immune cell infiltration via tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in a subset of patient tumors. In this review we present the current evidence highlighting the clinical relevance and utility of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer. Retrospective and prospective studies have shown that the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes is a prognostic marker for higher responses to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and better survival, particularly in triple negative and HER2-positive early breast cancer. Further work is required to determine the immune subsets important in this response and to discover ways of encouraging immune infiltrate in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes-negative patients.