No effect of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) on prognosis in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer: Validation of recommendations by the International TILs Working Group 2014.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the International TILs Working Group 2014 (IWG) recommendations for evaluating the clinical utility of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Methods: Records for 133 patients with early TNBC who underwent surgery between 2008 and 2010 were reviewed. A total of 121 of 133 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor samples were available and reviewed following IWG recommendations.

Results: Most of the patients had node-negative T1-2 tumors and received adjuvant chemotherapy; T1-2 tumors accounted for 117 of 121 cases. Sixty-two percent (75/121) of all patients had >10% stromal TILs. Intratumoral TILs and lymphocyte-predominant breast cancer (LPBC) were observed in 72% and 19% of the patients, respectively. However, there were no significant differences according to the presence of stromal TILs, intratumoral TILs, TILs at the invasive edge, or LPBC in terms of recurrence-free and overall survival (all P > 0.05). A multivariate analysis adjusted for T and N stage, grade, and adjuvant chemotherapy revealed that no TILs parameters were associated with survival outcomes.

Conclusions: TILs evaluations following the IWG recommendations may not be useful for predicting survival outcomes in patients with early TNBC. J. Surg. Oncol. 2016;114:17-21. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.