Profile of immune cells in axillary lymph nodes predicts disease-free survival in breast cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

While lymph node metastasis is among the strongest predictors of disease-free and overall survival for patients with breast cancer, the immunological nature of tumor-draining lymph nodes is often ignored, and may provide additional prognostic information on clinical outcome.

Methods and findings

We performed immunohistochemical analysis of 47 sentinel and 104 axillary (nonsentinel) nodes from 77 breast cancer patients with 5 y of follow-up to determine if alterations in CD4, CD8, and CD1a cell populations predict nodal metastasis or disease-free survival. Sentinel and axillary node CD4 and CD8 T cells were decreased in breast cancer patients compared to control nodes. CD1a dendritic cells were also diminished in sentinel and tumor-involved axillary nodes, but incr

SUBMITTER: Kohrt HE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1198041 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature