Immune landscape of breast tumors with low and intermediate estrogen receptor expression

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is currently approved for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), whereas responses to ICB are also observed in a small subgroup of Estrogen Receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. The cut-off for ER-positivity (≥1%) is based on likelihood of endocrine trea...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:NPJ breast cancer Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 39 - 10
Main Authors: Voorwerk, Leonie, Sanders, Joyce, Keusters, Milou S., Balduzzi, Sara, Cornelissen, Sten, Duijst, Maxime, Lips, Esther H., Sonke, Gabe S., Linn, Sabine C., Horlings, Hugo M., Kok, Marleen
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 13.05.2023
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
631/67
631/67/580
692/4028/67/1347
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Breast cancer
Cancer Research
Cell Biology
Estrogens
Human Genetics
Oncology
Tumors
ISSN:2374-4677, 2374-4677
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is currently approved for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), whereas responses to ICB are also observed in a small subgroup of Estrogen Receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. The cut-off for ER-positivity (≥1%) is based on likelihood of endocrine treatment response, but ER-positive breast cancer represents a very heterogeneous group. This raises the question whether selection based on ER-negativity should be revisited to select patients for ICB treatment in the context of clinical trials. Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) and other immune parameters are higher in TNBC compared to ER-positive breast cancer, but it is unknown whether lower ER levels are associated with more inflamed tumor microenvironments (TME). We collected a consecutive series of primary tumors from 173 HER2-negative breast cancer patients, enriched for tumors with ER expression between 1 and 99% and found levels of stromal TILs, CD8 + T cells, and PD-L1 positivity in breast tumors with ER 1–9% and ER 10–50% to be comparable to tumors with ER 0%. Expression of immune-related gene signatures in tumors with ER 1–9% and ER 10–50% was comparable to ER 0%, and higher than in tumors with ER 51–99% and ER 100%. Our results suggest that the immune landscape of ER low tumors (1–9%) and ER intermediate tumors (10–50%) mimic that of primary TNBC.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:2374-4677
2374-4677
DOI:10.1038/s41523-023-00543-0