OncoTargets and Therapy (May 2018)

High neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and decreased CD69+NK cells represent a phenotype of high risk in early-stage breast cancer patients

  • Mandó P,
  • Rizzo M,
  • Roberti MP,
  • Juliá EP,
  • Pampena MB,
  • Pérez de la Puente C,
  • Loza CM,
  • Ponce C,
  • Nadal J,
  • Coló FA,
  • Mordoh J,
  • Levy EM

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 11
pp. 2901 – 2910

Abstract

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Pablo Mandó,1,* Manglio Rizzo,2,* María Paula Roberti,1 Estefanía Paula Juliá,1 María Betina Pampena,1 Constanza Pérez de la Puente,2 Carlos Martín Loza,2 Carolina Ponce,2 Jorge Nadal,2 Federico Andres Coló,2 José Mordoh,1–3 Estrella Mariel Levy1 1Oncology Research Center CIO-FUCA, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 2Alexander Fleming Institute, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 3Biochemical Research Institute of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina *These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: Breast cancer (BC) is a highly heterogeneous disease presenting a broad range of clinical and molecular characteristics. In the past years, a growing body of evidence demonstrated that immune response plays a significant role in cancer outcome. However, immune prognostic markers are not completely validated in clinical practice in BC patients. Materials and methods: With the aim to characterize immune features, several parameters were analyzed in peripheral blood at diagnosis of 85 nonmetastatic BC patients between April 2011 and July 2014. Results: With a median follow-up of 38.6 months, peripheral blood analysis of BC patients (stages I, II, and III) showed that total lymphocyte and T lymphocyte counts were augmented in nonrelapsed patients. Also, a higher neutrophil-to-lymphocytes ratio was associated with prolonged disease-free survival. Natural killer cell receptor analysis revealed that early activation receptor CD69 was associated with a better outcome. Conclusion: This preliminary evidence is in accordance with the concept of immune surveillance. We suggest an “immune phenotype” that provides relevant prognostic information in early-stage BC patients and which could be useful in the decision-making process. Keywords: breast neoplasm, prognostic factors, lymphocytes, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio

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