The role of immune infiltrates as prognostic biomarkers in patients with breast cancer

The presence of immune infiltrates in the tumor microenvironment has been documented in many types of cancer. Moreover, the preexistent or endogenous immunity which consists of interactions between intratumoral lymphocytes and tumor cells is mostly relevant for the successful application of various anticancer therapies, including standard chemotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibition-based immunotherapy and targeted therapies. The immunoscore defines densities of intratumoral immune infiltrates which determine poor or favorable prognosis depending on their quantity and quality in the tumor compartments. Results from large clinical studies have demonstrated an association between high densities of cytotoxic and memory TILs in the tumor compartments with improved prognosis. Importantly, we have demonstrated that differential combined densities of immune infiltrates jointly analyzed in the tumor center (TC) and the invasive margin (IM) have a significant prognostic value in breast cancer patients with poor clinicopathological parameters.