Intratumoral CD103-positive tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes are associated with favourable prognosis in patients with triple-negative breast cancer.

AIMS: Cluster of differentiation 103 (CD103), a marker of tissue resident memory T cells, is expressed on subsets of CD8+ T lymphocytes. We investigated the prognostic significance of CD103+ intra-epithelial tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (iTILs) in invasive breast cancer (IBC). METHODS AND RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry was performed for CD103, CD8 and TGF-ß isoforms (1, 2 and 3) on tissue microarrays of 1187 IBC samples. CD103+ and CD8+ iTILs were present in 904 (76.2%) and 854 (74%) cases with an overall mean ± standard deviation of 38.2 ± 100.2/mm2 and 30.4 ± 89.7/mm2 , respectively. The numbers of CD103+ and CD8+ iTILs were positively correlated, and CD103+ iTILs outnumbered CD8+ iTILs in HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). CD103+ and CD8+ iTIL densities were significantly higher in tumours of histological grade 3, absence of lymphovascular invasion, high Ki-67 index, high stromal TIL density or TGF-ß3 expression. High CD103+ iTIL density was associated with better disease-free survival (DFS, P = 0.007), but no significant association was observed for overall survival (OS). Subgroup analysis by cancer molecular subtype showed that CD103+ iTIL count was prognostic only for TNBC (OS, P = 0.035; DFS, P = 0.009). CD8+ iTIL density was significant for DFS, but not for OS, in the entire cohort and TNBC. In multivariate analysis, CD103+ iTIL density was an independent prognostic factor of OS (P = 0.02) and DFS (P = 0.007) in TNBC, while CD8+ iTIL density was not significant for survival. CONCLUSIONS: CD103 iTIL density can serve as a predictor of good prognosis in patients with TNBC.

Integrated PET/MR mammography for quantitative analysis and correlation to prognostic factors of invasive ductal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: We investigated the relationship between 18F-FDG PET parameters and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values obtained by diffusion weighted MRI (DWI) in patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). In addition, the prognostic utility of PET/MR mammography parameters was compared with that of known histologic prognostic factors. METHODS: Forty-six women aged 50.7±10.5 years underwent a preoperative PET/MR mammography assessment using an integrated PET/MR scanner. T1w, T2w, DWI (b value: 50, 400, and 800 s/mm2), dynamic contrast enhancement sequences, and 18F-FDG PET imaging were performed. IDCs were assessed using SUVmax values and intratumoral heterogeneities (IH) from the 18F-FDG PET images and mean (ADCmean) and minimum ADC (ADCmin) values were measured using the DWI images. Relationships between the PET parameters and ADC values were evaluated. Furthermore, SUVmax and ADC values were compared with histologic factors, tumor size, nodal status, lymphovascular invasion, Ki-67 expression and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). RESULTS: In total 46 IDCs (2.1-7.5 cm in size) were analyzed. SUVmax (P=0.012) and elevated IH (P=0.041) were negatively correlated with ADCmin, then TNBC (P=0.013) and high Ki-67 expression (P=0.002) were associated with higher SUVmax. IDC with lymphovascular invasion had low ADCmin values (P=0.045). CONCLUSIONS: 18F-FDG PET metabolic parameters and ADCmin were negatively correlated. PET parameters and ADC values might reflect the expression of biological features of tumors and tumor invasiveness, respectively. Integrated PET/MR mammography seemed like to have potential of a one-stop method for evaluating and predicting the prognosis of IDC.