Immune Milieu and Genomic Alterations Set the Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Immunomodulatory Subtype Tumor Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive and heterogeneous disease. Seven subtypes have been described based on gene expression patterns. Herein, we characterized the tumor biology and clinical behavior of the immunomodulatory (IM) subtype.

Methods

Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples from 68 high-risk (stage III-IV) TNBC patients were analyzed through microarrays, immunohistochemistry, and DNA sequencing.

Results

The IM subtype was identified in 24% of TNBC tumor samples and characterized by a higher intratumoral (intT) and stromal (strml) infiltration of FOXP3+ TILs (Treg) compared with non-IM subtypes. Further, PD-L1+ (>1%) expression was significantly higher, as well as CTLA-4+ intT and strml expression in the IM subtype. Differential expression and

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez-Bautista R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8699570 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature