Korean J Pathol.
2011 Feb;45(1):53-61.
Significance of Foxp3 Positive Regulatory T Cell and Tumor Infiltrating T Lymphocyte in Triple Negative Breast Cancer
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Pathology, Ewha Medical Research Institute, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. sunhsung@ewha.ac.kr
- 2Department of Internal Medicine, Ewha Medical Research Institute, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
- 3Department of Surgery, Ewha Medical Research Institute, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
- BACKGROUND
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is defined as a lack of the expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 in breast cancer. Many TNBCs show a profound infiltration of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). It is still uncertain whether these TILs are protumoral or antitumoral. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a role in inducing immune tolerance to antigens, and they may be selectively recruited by cancer cells. This study was conducted to evaluate the significance of TILs with an emphasis on forkhead box p3 (Foxp3), which is a marker for CD25+CD4+ Treg in TNBC.
METHODS
We investigated the Foxp3, CD8 and CD4 expressions in 100 cases of TNBC by immunohistochemistry and using a tissue microarray. The Foxp3 expression was divided as the high and low infiltration groups (cut-off value=20).
RESULTS
The high infiltration group was correlated with higher histologic and nuclear grades. However, Foxp3+ Tregs were decreased in the T3 and T4 TNBCs as compared to that of the T1 and T2 TNBCs. No significant differences were found for the nodal status, lymphovascular invasion, stage, recurrence and overall survival.
CONCLUSIONS
High Foxp3+ Treg infiltration in TNBC is correlated with the nuclear and histologic grades, but there was no relation to recurrence and overall survival.
Keyword
MeSH Terms
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Breast
Breast Neoplasms
Estrogens
Forkhead Transcription Factors
Humans
Immune Tolerance
Immunohistochemistry
Lymphocytes
Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating
Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor
Receptor, erbB-2
Receptors, Progesterone
Recurrence
T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory
Estrogens
Forkhead Transcription Factors
Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor
Receptor, erbB-2
Receptors, Progesterone
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