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Metaplastic breast cancers frequently express immune checkpoint markers FOXP3 and PD-L1

Kalaw E 1 , Lim M 1 , Kutasovic JR 1 , Sokolova A 1 , Taege L 1 , Johnstone K 1 Show all authors , Bennett J 1 , Saunus JM 1 , Niland C 1 , Ferguson K 1 , Gresshoff I 1 , Bettington M 1 , Pathmanathan N 2 , Tse GM 3 , Papadimos D 4 , Pathmanathan R 5 , Harris G 6 , Yamaguchi R 7 , Tan PH 8 , Fox S 9 , O'Toole SA 10 , Simpson PT 1 , Lakhani SR 11 , McCart Reed AE 12

Affiliations 

  • 1 Faculty of Medicine, UQ Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  • 2 Westmead Breast Cancer Institute, University of Sydney, Westmead, NSW, Australia
  • 3 Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong
  • 4 Department of Histopathology, Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology, Bowen Hills, QLD, Australia
  • 5 Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, 47500, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 6 Canterbury Health Laboratories, Christchurch, New Zealand/Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
  • 7 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Kurume University Medical Center, 155-1 Kokubu, Kurume-shi, 839-0863, Japan
  • 8 Division of Pathology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
  • 9 Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  • 10 Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Kinghorn Cancer Centre, 384 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010, Australia
  • 11 Faculty of Medicine, UQ Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. s.lakhani@uq.edu.au
  • 12 Faculty of Medicine, UQ Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. amy.reed@uq.edu.au
Br J Cancer, 2020 11;123(11):1665-1672.
PMID: 32939056 DOI: 10.1038/s41416-020-01065-3

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Metaplastic breast carcinoma encompasses a heterogeneous group of tumours with differentiation into squamous and/or spindle, chondroid, osseous or rhabdoid mesenchymal-looking elements. Emerging immunotherapies targeting Programmed Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1) and immune-suppressing T cells (Tregs) may benefit metaplastic breast cancer patients, which are typically chemo-resistant and do not express hormone therapy targets.

METHODS: We evaluated the immunohistochemical expression of PD-L1 and FOXP3, and the extent of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in a large cohort of metaplastic breast cancers, with survival data.

RESULTS: Metaplastic breast cancers were significantly enriched for PD-L1 positive tumour cells, compared to triple-negative ductal breast cancers (P 

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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