Presence of CD3+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes is significantly associated with good prognosis in infiltrating ductal carcinoma of breast.
BACKGROUND
Aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of CD3+ TILs in infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast.


METHODS
Immuno-histochemistry was done with CD3 antibodies in tissue sections of 127 breast cancer patients, and CD3+ intra-tumoral and stromal TILs were counted in relation to clinico-pathological variables.


RESULTS
Intra-tumoral and stromal CD3+ TILs were significantly associated with positive lymph node status (P = 0.006, P = 0.043, respectively) without significant association with age, menopausal status, family history, and hormonal status. The higher CD3 intra-tumoral and stromal counts both showed significant association with good prognosis (P = 0.039, P = 0.044, respectively). The intra-tumoral count was higher than stromal count and was independently associated with disease-free survival in stage I and II cancer (P = 0.021).


CONCLUSIONS
CD3+ TILs may serve as independent marker of good prognosis in IDC breast. The findings of this study need further validation on a larger sample size.
Department of Pathology, King George's Medical University UP, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
A S
AS
Rathore
S
S
Kumar
R
R
Konwar
A N
AN
Srivastava
A
A
Makker
M M
MM
Goel
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D017252:CD3 Complex / Q000276:immunology; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000276:immunology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
D017252:CD3 Complex