Department of Pathology, University of Freiburg Medical Center , Freiburg im Breisgau , Germany ; Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg , Freiburg im Breisgau , Germany ; University Hospital "José de San Martin", University of Buenos Aires , Buenos Aires , Argentina.
Department of Pathology, University of Freiburg Medical Center , Freiburg im Breisgau , Germany ; Comprehensive Cancer Center , Freiburg im Breisgau , Germany.
Front Immunol. 2014 Dec 10;5:632. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2014.00632. eCollection 2014.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women and the second most common cancer worldwide after lung cancer. The remarkable heterogeneity of breast cancers influences numerous diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic factors. Triple-negative breast carcinomas (TNBCs) lack expression of HER2 and the estrogen and progesterone receptors and often contain lymphocytic infiltrates. Most of TNBCs are invasive ductal carcinomas (IDCs) with poor prognosis, whereas prognostically more favorable subtypes such as medullary breast carcinomas (MBCs) are somewhat less frequent. Infiltrating T-cells have been associated with an improved clinical outcome in TNBCs. The prognostic role of γδ T-cells within CD3(+) tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes remains unclear. We analyzed 26 TNBCs, 14 IDCs, and 12 MBCs, using immunohistochemistry for the quantity and patterns of γδ T-cell infiltrates within the tumor microenvironment. In both types of TNBCs, we found higher numbers of γδ T-cells in comparison with normal breast tissues and fibroadenomas. The numbers of infiltrating γδ T-cells were higher in MBCs than in IDCs. γδ T-cells in MBCs were frequently located in direct contact with tumor cells, within the tumor and at its invasive border. In contrast, most γδ T-cells in IDCs were found in clusters within the tumor stroma. These findings could be associated with the fact that the patient's prognosis in MBCs is better than that in IDCs. Further studies to characterize these γδ T-cells at the molecular and functional level are in progress.
乳腺癌是女性癌症死亡的主要原因，也是全球仅次于肺癌的第二大常见癌症。乳腺癌的显著异质性影响了众多诊断、治疗和预后因素。三阴性乳腺癌（TNBC）缺乏 HER2 以及雌激素和孕激素受体的表达，通常含有淋巴细胞浸润。大多数 TNBC 是具有不良预后的浸润性导管癌（IDC），而预后更有利的亚型如髓样乳腺癌（MBC）则较为少见。浸润性 T 细胞与 TNBC 的临床预后改善有关。γδ T 细胞在 CD3(+)肿瘤浸润性 T 淋巴细胞中的预后作用尚不清楚。我们使用免疫组织化学方法分析了 26 例 TNBC、14 例 IDC 和 12 例 MBC，以研究肿瘤微环境中 γδ T 细胞浸润的数量和模式。在两种 TNBC 中，与正常乳腺组织和纤维腺瘤相比，我们发现 γδ T 细胞数量更多。MBC 中浸润的 γδ T 细胞数量高于 IDC。MBC 中的 γδ T 细胞通常与肿瘤细胞直接接触，位于肿瘤内及其侵袭边界。相比之下，IDC 中的大多数 γδ T 细胞位于肿瘤基质内的簇中。这些发现可能与 MBC 患者的预后优于 IDC 有关。目前正在进行进一步的研究，以从分子和功能水平上对这些 γδ T 细胞进行表征。
