Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.
J Egypt Natl Canc Inst. 2020 Jan 27;32(1):6. doi: 10.1186/s43046-020-0018-8.
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are important in regulating cross-talk between tumor cells and tumor microenvironment. TAMs are involved in multiple steps of tumor progression and invasion. This study aimed to compare CD163 expression with the widely used CD68 pan-macrophage marker in invasive breast carcinoma. Furthermore, it focused on assessing the significance of TAMs localization in relation to clinicopathological parameters.
CD68 and CD163 immunohistochemical expressions within TAMs infiltrating both tumor nest (TN) and tumor stroma (TS) were evaluated in 60 specimens with invasive breast carcinoma. High CD68-positive stromal TAMs was significantly related to larger tumor, nodal metastasis and vascular invasion (p = 0.003, 0.037, 0.032, respectively), whereas high CD163-positive stromal TAMs was significantly related to larger tumors, nodal metastasis, stage III tumors, vascular invasion, estrogen receptor (ER) negativity, and triple-negative subtype (p = 0.023, < 0.001, 0.001, 0.022, 0.002, 0.017, respectively). On multivariate analysis, high CD68-positive TAMs infiltrating TS was significantly associated with larger tumor and positive nodal metastasis (p = 0.006 and 0.016, respectively), whereas high CD163 TAMs density within TS was significantly associated with positive vascular invasion, nodal metastasis, and molecular subtypes (p = 0.003, 0.001, and 0.009, respectively).
TAMs within tumor stroma and tumor nest have different levels of association with poor prognostic parameters. So, it is of great importance to consider the histologic localization of TAMs in addition to the degree of TAMs infiltration.
肿瘤相关巨噬细胞（TAMs）在调节肿瘤细胞与肿瘤微环境之间的相互作用方面起着重要作用。TAMs 参与了肿瘤进展和侵袭的多个步骤。本研究旨在比较 CD163 表达与广泛使用的 CD68 泛巨噬细胞标志物在浸润性乳腺癌中的表达。此外，本研究还重点评估了 TAMs 定位与临床病理参数的关系。
在 60 例浸润性乳腺癌标本中，评估了肿瘤巢（TN）和肿瘤间质（TS）内浸润的 TAMs 的 CD68 和 CD163 免疫组织化学表达。高 CD68 阳性间质 TAMs 与肿瘤较大、淋巴结转移和血管侵犯显著相关（p=0.003、0.037 和 0.032），而高 CD163 阳性间质 TAMs 与肿瘤较大、淋巴结转移、III 期肿瘤、血管侵犯、雌激素受体（ER）阴性和三阴性亚型显著相关（p=0.023、<0.001、0.001、0.022、0.002 和 0.017）。多变量分析显示，TS 内高 CD68 阳性 TAMs 浸润与肿瘤较大和淋巴结阳性转移显著相关（p=0.006 和 0.016），而 TS 内高 CD163 TAMs 密度与血管侵犯、淋巴结转移和分子亚型显著相关（p=0.003、0.001 和 0.009）。
肿瘤间质和肿瘤巢内的 TAMs 与不良预后参数的相关性不同。因此，除了 TAMs 浸润程度外，考虑 TAMs 的组织学定位非常重要。
