Prognostic Impact of CD3 Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Triple-negative Breast Cancer.

ABSTRACT

Background: Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of CD3+ tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TILs) in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Methods: Immunohistochemistry was done with antibodies to CD3 TIL, estrogen receptors (ERs), progesterone receptor (PR) and C-erbB2 in tissue sections of 49 TNBC patients. CD3+ intratumoral and stromal TILs were counted in relation to known clinicopathological factors. Results: Intratumoral CD3+ TILs were significantly associated with stage (p = 0.05) with insignificant association with age, menopausal status, family history, grade and lymph node status. Higher counts of stromal CD3+ TILs were significantly associated with stage (p = 0.05), whereas grade, lymph node status, age, menopausal status and family history were insignificant with CD3+ count. The higher CD3 intratumoral and stromal counts both showed significant association with good prognosis (p 0.05). Conclusion: CD3+ TILs may serve as good prognostic marker in TNBC. The results of present study need further validation on larger sample size.