The Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 30;8(9):e76147. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076147. eCollection 2013.
The tumor microenvironment is composed of tumor cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells and infiltrating immune cells, which may inhibit or promote tumor growth and progression. The objectives of this retrospective study were to characterize the density of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in breast cancer, and to correlate the density of TAMs with clinicopathological parameters. Paraffin-embedded specimens and clinicopathological data, including up to 5 years follow-up information, were obtained from 172 breast cancer patients. Immunohistochemical staining for CD68 (marker for macrophages) was performed and evaluated in a blinded fashion. We found that TAMs were significantly frequent in high histopathological grade breast cancer patients. Breast cancer patients with a high density of TAMs had significantly lower rates of disease-free survival and 5-year overall survival than patients with low density of TAMs. Furthermore, high-infiltration of TAMs indicated worse survival rate for patients with node-negative breast cancer. In conclusion, the number of TAMs in the tumor stroma is an independent predictor of survival time for breast cancer patients. High-infiltration of TAMs is a significant unfavorable prognostic factor for patients with invasive breast cancer and, as such, is a potentially useful prognostic marker for breast cancer.
肿瘤微环境由肿瘤细胞、成纤维细胞、内皮细胞和浸润的免疫细胞组成，这些细胞可能抑制或促进肿瘤的生长和进展。本回顾性研究的目的是描述乳腺癌中肿瘤相关巨噬细胞（TAMs）的密度，并将 TAMs 的密度与临床病理参数相关联。从 172 名乳腺癌患者中获得了石蜡包埋标本和临床病理数据，包括长达 5 年的随访信息。进行了 CD68（巨噬细胞标志物）的免疫组织化学染色，并进行了盲法评估。我们发现，TAMs 在高组织病理学分级的乳腺癌患者中更为常见。TAMs 密度高的乳腺癌患者无病生存率和 5 年总生存率明显低于 TAMs 密度低的患者。此外，TAMs 的高浸润预示着无淋巴结转移的乳腺癌患者的生存率更差。总之，肿瘤基质中 TAMs 的数量是乳腺癌患者生存时间的独立预测因子。TAMs 的高浸润是浸润性乳腺癌患者预后不良的显著危险因素，因此是一种潜在的有用的乳腺癌预后标志物。
