e14285 Background: The treatment of breast cancer, one of the most common malignant tumors for female, focuses on the combined treatments based on subtypes including Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2 overexpression and triple negative. Given that none of those subtypes takes into consideration of immunological parameters, it is valuable to explore the biological characteristics and prognostic value of immune cells in breast caner. T follicular helper cells (Tfh cells) have been identified in different types of tumors with rare datas in breast cancer. One of them indicated the positive prognostic value of 8-gene Tfh signature. Exploration of Tfh cells may provide new clues to the potential immunotherapies in breast cancer. Methods: Freshly resected invasive breast cancer tissue from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center were collected during 06/2015 to 05/2017. Patients were divided into Luminal A (N = 61), Luminal B (HER2-) (N = 138), Luminal B (HER2+) (N = 72), HER2+ (non-luminal) (N = 57) and triple negative (N = 58) based on St Gallen International Expert Consensus. Results: A subpopulation of PD1hiCD4+ T cells in the tumor tissues of breast cancer was identified as Tfh-like cells, with the specific expression of Bcl-6 and CXCL13, confirmed by IHC. Phenotypes of those cells were checked by flow cytometry. Tfh-like cells were of a high level of ICOS but negative for CXCR5, suggesting that they were atypical Tfh cells. Data showed that high grade (N = 166; mean±SEM, 17.62±0.87) compared with low grade (N = 220; mean±SEM, 12.41±0.46) or high Ki-67 level (N = 300; mean±SEM, 15.38±0.58) with low Ki-67 level (N = 86; mean±SEM, 12.10±0.67), and negative ER expression (N = 115; mean±SEM, 17.47±1.05) compared with positive ER expression (N = 271; mean±SEM, 13.46±0.50) or negative PR expression (N = 177; mean±SEM, 16.87±0.83) compared with positive PR expression (N = 209; mean±SEM, 12.77±0.50) was associated with higher frequency of Tfh-like cells (P < 0.01 to all). Patients with triple negative had higher frequency of Tfh-like cells than those with Luminal A (difference, 6.83; P = 0.0006) and Luminal B (HER2-) (difference, 4.61; P = 0.0124). Patients with HER2+ (non-luminal) had higher frequency of Tfh-like cells than those with Luminal A (difference, 5.34; P = 0.0146). These results indicate that higher frequency of Tfh-like cells could have negative prognostic influence. Conclusions: Our study defined a PD1hiBcl6+CXCL13+CD4+ T cell subpopulation, which specifically secretes cytokine IL-21 as Tfh-like cells. Higher frequency of Tfh-like cells is more likely to be seen in patients with poor prognosis.
The prognostic value of quantitative analysis of CCL5 and collagen IV in luminal B (HER2–) subtype breast cancer by quantum-dot-based molecular imaging