title: Effects of infiltrating lymphocytes and estrogen receptor on gene expression and prognosis in breast cancer.
abstract: The involvement of the immune system for the course of breast cancer, as evidenced by varying degrees of lymphocyte infiltration (LI) into the tumor is still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of LI in breast cancer samples using microarray-based screening for LI-associated genes. Starting from the observation that most published ER gene signatures are heavily influenced by the LI effect, we developed and applied a novel approach to dissect molecular signatures. Further, a meta-analysis encompassing 1,044 hybridizations showed that LI alone is not sufficient to highlight breast cancer patients with different prognosis. However, for ER positive patients, high LI was associated with shorter survival times, whereas for ER negative patients, high LI is significantly associated with longer survival. Annotation of LI, in addition to ER status, is important for breast cancer patient prognosis and may have implications for the future treatment of breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Genome Analysis, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calabrò
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beissbarth
authors.forename: Ruprecht
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kuner
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stojanov
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Benner
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asslaber
authors.forename: Ferdinand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ploner
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zatloukal
authors.forename: Hellmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Samonigg
authors.forename: Annemarie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Poustka
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sültmann
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000502:physiology*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen