Advances in Tumour-Infiltrating Lymphocytes for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Management

Rok Gorenšek; Martin Kresnik; Iztok Takač; Tomaž Rojko; Monika Sobočan

doi:10.2147/BCTT.S399157

Advances in Tumour-Infiltrating Lymphocytes for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Management

Breast Cancer (Dove Med Press). 2023 Nov 2:15:773-783. doi: 10.2147/BCTT.S399157. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Rok Gorenšek^#^{1

2}, Martin Kresnik^#^{1

3}, Iztok Takač^{1

4}, Tomaž Rojko^{1

5}, Monika Sobočan^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
² Department of Oncology, University Medical Centre Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
³ Department of Emergency Medicine, University Medical Centre Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
⁴ Division of Gynecology and Perinatology, University Medical Centre Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
⁵ Department of Pathology, University Medical Centre Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer which does not express or expresses a minimum amount of estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein. TNBCs include a heterogenic group of cancers that are aggressive, grow rapidly and are associated with poor prognosis and overall survival, mainly attributed to a lack of effective therapeutic targets. For a long time, a major issue with predicting the outcome and prognosis of TNBCs was the lack of an accurate biomarker, a molecule that helps us objectively assess a patient's health status. In recent times, defining the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) is becoming an indispensable method of determining a patient's prognosis. TILs are found in tumor tissue and the surrounding stroma and carry a prognostic value. Furthermore, they are known to improve the effect of systemic therapy. With the rise of immunotherapy, the role of TIL in this newer therapeutic option is a topic of increased importance. The goal behind this research article is a comprehensive review of the current literature on the importance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in the prognosis of TNBC.

Keywords: dysfunction/exhaustion; immunometabolism; immunotherapy; microenvironment; prognosis; tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Slovenian Research Agency, grant number J3-9272 and the Core Research Programme P3-0321, the Internal Research Project Funding of the University Medical Centre Maribor, grant number IRP-2021/01-02, IRP-2019/02-15.