The influence of macrophage polarisation status and IL-6 in breast carcinoma invasion

Abstract

IntroductionBreast cancer metastasis accounts for the majority of deaths from breast cancer. The knowledge on IL-6 affecting cancer cell metastatic behaviour need to be studied. ObjectivesThis study aim to examine the association of macrophage polarisation status and IL-6 with clinicopathological criteria and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) of breast carcinoma. Material & Method81 cases of FFPE breast carcinoma samples were stained with IL6, CD80 (M1 macrophage), CD204 and CD163 (M2 macrophage) and CD68 (pan-macrophage marker). The macrophages count were evaluated based on three hotspots of positively stained cells. IL-6 scoring was done using the H-score method. ResultSignificant association was observed between CD68 marker with blood vessel invasion (p-value = 0.014), lymphatic vessel invasion (p-value = 0.005), and metastasis (p-value =0.028). CD68 was also significantly associated with CD204 (p = 0.027). CD80 biomarker also showing significant association with patient tumour grade (p-value = 0.054), ER (0.028) and PR (0.010) in patient clinical data and CD204 is significantly associated with ER (0.053) and PR (0.054) patient clinical data. Meanwhile, there is no significant association of IL-6 with the patient clinical data. ConclusionThere is no significant association of IL-6 with the patient clinicopathological data obtained in this study while CD68 showed significant correlation with M2 macrophage biomarker and LVI indicating the influence of M1 and M2 macrophage in breast cancer metastatic pathway through blood and lymphatic vessel invasion.