Immune cells from pleural fluids of patients with inflammatory breast cancer are immunocompetent.

Abstract

Abstract Abstract #5044 Background: Malignant pleural effusion is a debilitating complication of metastatic breast cancer (MBC), including inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). The cellular components in pleural effusion are important indicators of pathologic process. Although pleural fluids from patients with IBC contain tumor cells and immune cells, little is known about the phenotype and function of the immune cell infiltrate. The objective of the study was to determine the immunophenotype and function of the cellular immune cells in pleural effusion of patients with pleural metastases.
 Methods and Patients: Pleural effusions from 9 women with MBC, 6 with IBC, median age 56 years (range 44-75 yrs), were submitted for pathological review. Mononuclear cells (MNC) were reacted with a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies to detect surface antigens by 8-parameter flow cytometry. In addition, MNC were activated through the T-cell receptor (TCR) with immobilized anti-CD3 and soluble anti-CD28 to assess intracytoplasmic syntheses of pro-inflammatory [interleukin (IL)-2, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ)] and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokines by TCR-activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Data are presented as the mean (±SEM) of TCR-activated CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells that synthesized inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines.
 Results: Upon pathological review, the mean (±SEM) number of tumor cells, MNC, and neutrophils were 20.2% ± 7.4% (range, 2%-72%), 62.4% ± 7.7% (range, 25%-96%), and 17.3% ± 5.9% (range, 0%-50.0%), respectively. The MNC consisted of 83.1% ± 8.2% CD3+ pan-T, 58.2% ± 7.0% CD4+ T, 24.2% ± 5.2% CD8+ T, 2.8% ± 0.9% CD19+ B, 4.0% ± 0.7% natural killer (NK), 3.4% ± 1.8% NKT, and 0.9% ± 0.2% dendritic cells, respectively. The CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio was 3.62 ± 0.78. The percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that synthesized inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines following activation through the TCR-activated are listed in Table 1.
 
 Conclusion: There were no statistically significant differences between pleural fluids of IBC and non-IBC subjects with respect to tumor cell involvement, MNC phenotype, or T-cell function. Moreover, the function of pleural fluid T cells of MBC patients were similar to that of normal peripheral blood T cells (historical data, not shown). These data suggest that T-cells in the pleural fluids of patients with MBC are immune competent and can be activated through the TCR to synthesize pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 5044.