Abstract
Background/AimThe aim of this study is to determine the relationship between stromal types, PD-L1 status and clinicopathological characteristics in patients with different molecular subtypes of breast cancer.Materials and methodsProtein expression levels of PD-L1 were determined by immunohistochemistry assay. Stromal type was classified based on the maturity of the tumor stroma.ResultsDifferent subtypes of breast cancer had distinct stromal types. Tumors from patients with mature stroma had lower pathological N stage and AJCC stage, more frequent high p53 expression and positive stromal PD-L1 staining. Hormone receptor negative patients had higher frequency of positive stromal PD-L1 staining. Stromal PD-L1 status was also associated with different breast cancer subtypes and EGFR expression level. Importantly, our data revealed that stromal types and stromal PD-L1 status were independent prognostic factors.ConclusionThis study highlighted the importance of stromal types and stromal PD-L1 status in determining clinical outcomes in patients with breast cancer, and suggested that stromal type classification might be readily incorporated into routine clinical risk assessment following curative resection or optimal therapeutic design.
Highlights
Breast cancer associated stroma is consisted of fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, leukocytes, endothelial cells, macrophages, adipocytes and extracellular matrix (ECM) [1]
Stromal programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) status was associated with different breast cancer subtypes and EGFR expression level
Our data revealed that stromal types and stromal PD-L1 status were independent prognostic factors
Summary
Breast cancer associated stroma is consisted of fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, leukocytes, endothelial cells, macrophages, adipocytes and extracellular matrix (ECM) [1]. The significance of tumor stroma is often overlooked, which contains valuable information for treatment choices. Beck and colleagues have revealed that the stromal compartment of breast tumors contains more prognostic information than the epithelial component [3]. Based on the principal stromal tissue component, Soomin Ahn and colleague classified tumor stroma into three dominant types, including collagen dominant, fibroblast dominant and lymphocyte dominant. They found that this classifier can stratify the prognostic outcome of breast cancer [2]. Histologically characterizing the stromal types of different subtypes of breast cancer and analyzing their correlations may provide valuable information for clinical practice
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