Cited by 279Breast Cancer Treatment StudiesCancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersImmune cells in cancer

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A Comprehensive Immunologic Portrait of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Open access
Liu, Zhixian, Li, Mengyuan, Jiang, Zehang, Wang, Xiaosheng·2018·Translational Oncology

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Abstract Background Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a high-risk malignancy due to its high capacity for invasion and lack of targeted therapy. Immunotherapy continues to demonstrate efficacy in a variety of cancers, and thus may be a promising strategy for TNBC given the limited therapeutic options currently available for TNBC. In this study, we performed a comprehensive portrait of immunologic landscape of TNBC based on 2 large-scale breast cancer genomic data. Methods We compared expression levels of immune-related genes and gene-sets among TNBC, non-TNBC, and normal tissue, and within TNBCs of different genotypic or phenotypic features. Moreover, we explored the association of immune-related genes or gene-sets expression and survival prognosis in TNBC patients. Results We found that almost all analyzed immune-related gene-sets had significantly higher expression levels in TNBC than non-TNBC. These highly expressed gene-sets in TNBC included 15 immune cell type and function, human leukocyte antigen (HLA), cancer testis (CT), tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), immune cell infiltrate, regulatory T (Treg) cells, immune checkpoint, cytokine and cytokine receptor, metastasis-promoting, pro-inflammatory and parainflammation (PI) gene-sets. Moreover, TP53-mutated , TNBC had significantly higher expression levels of the immune checkpoint, Treg, PI, and CT gene-sets, and lower expression levels of the immune cell infiltrate gene-set than TP53 -wildtype TNBC. Furthermore, we found that elevated expression of most of the immune-related genes in TNBC was associated with the ER-status, while some were associated with both ER-and HER2-status. Elevated expression of the immune-related genes in TNBC was also associated with the high tumor mutation burden (TMB) in TNBC. Finally, elevated expression of the immune-related gene-sets was likely to be associated with better survival prognosis in TNBC. Conclusions Our findings suggest that TNBC is a breast cancer subtype with particularly strong immunogenicity, and therefore could be propitious to immunotherapeutic options.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.tranon.2018.01.011

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Figures

Figure 1 Comparison of expression levels of immune cell types, functional markers, and HLA genes between TNBC and non-TNBC. (A) Heat-map for expression levels of immune cell types and function genes in TNBC and non-TNBC. (B) Comparison of expression levels of the HLA gene-set between TNBC and non-TNBC. Red color indicates higher gene expression levels, and blue color indicates lower gene expression levels.
Figure 1 Comparison of expression levels of immune cell types, functional markers, and HLA genes between TNBC and non-TNBC. (A) Heat-map for expression levels of immune cell types and function genes in TNBC and non-TNBC. (B) Comparison of expression levels of the HLA gene-set between TNBC and non-TNBC. Red color indicates higher gene expression levels, and blue color indicates lower gene expression levels.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Figure 2 Comparison of expression levels of TILs, immune cell infiltrate, Treg, and immune checkpoint genes between TNBC and non-TNBC. (A) Heat-map for expression levels of TILs genes in TNBC and non-TNBC. TILs: tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. (B) Comparison of expression levels of immune cell subpopulation genes between TNBC and non-TNBC in METABRIC. *: P < 0.05; **: P < 0.01; ***: P < 0.001, and it applies to all the following box charts. C. Heat-map for expression levels of Treg and immune checkpoint genes in TNBC and non-TNBC. D. Comparison of expression levels of important immune checkpoint genes between TNBC and non-TNBC in METABRIC. Red color indicates higher gene expression levels, and blue color indicates lower gene expression levels.
Figure 2 Comparison of expression levels of TILs, immune cell infiltrate, Treg, and immune checkpoint genes between TNBC and non-TNBC. (A) Heat-map for expression levels of TILs genes in TNBC and non-TNBC. TILs: tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. (B) Comparison of expression levels of immune cell subpopulation genes between TNBC and non-TNBC in METABRIC. *: P < 0.05; **: P < 0.01; ***: P < 0.001, and it applies to all the following box charts. C. Heat-map for expression levels of Treg and immune checkpoint genes in TNBC and non-TNBC. D. Comparison of expression levels of important immune checkpoint genes between TNBC and non-TNBC in METABRIC. Red color indicates higher gene expression levels, and blue color indicates lower gene expression levels.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Figure 3 Comparison of expression levels of metastasis-promoting, metastasis-inhibiting, inflammation-promoting, and parainflammation genes between TNBC and non-TNBC. (A) Comparison of expression levels of the metastasis-promoting and metastasis-inhibiting gene-sets between TNBC and non-TNBC. (B) Heat-map for expression levels of inflammation-promoting genes and parainflammation genes in TNBC and non-TNBC. (C) Comparison of expression levels of important inflammation-promoting genes between TNBC and non-TNBC in METABRIC. Red color indicates higher gene expression levels, and blue color indicates lower gene expression levels.
Figure 3 Comparison of expression levels of metastasis-promoting, metastasis-inhibiting, inflammation-promoting, and parainflammation genes between TNBC and non-TNBC. (A) Comparison of expression levels of the metastasis-promoting and metastasis-inhibiting gene-sets between TNBC and non-TNBC. (B) Heat-map for expression levels of inflammation-promoting genes and parainflammation genes in TNBC and non-TNBC. (C) Comparison of expression levels of important inflammation-promoting genes between TNBC and non-TNBC in METABRIC. Red color indicates higher gene expression levels, and blue color indicates lower gene expression levels.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Figure 4 Correlation between immune gene expression and OS prognosis in TNBC. A. Kaplan-Meier survival curves show that elevated expression of most of the immune gene-sets is associated with better OS prognosis in TNBC (log-rank test, unadjusted P-value < 0.05). B. Kaplan-Meier survival curves show that elevated expression of a number of immune genes is associated with better OS prognosis in TNBC (log-rank test, unadjusted P-value < 0.05). OS: overall survival.
Figure 4 Correlation between immune gene expression and OS prognosis in TNBC. A. Kaplan-Meier survival curves show that elevated expression of most of the immune gene-sets is associated with better OS prognosis in TNBC (log-rank test, unadjusted P-value < 0.05). B. Kaplan-Meier survival curves show that elevated expression of a number of immune genes is associated with better OS prognosis in TNBC (log-rank test, unadjusted P-value < 0.05). OS: overall survival.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Figure 5 Correlation between immunogenic activity and the differential expression of genes or signaling pathways between TNBC and non-TNBC. A. Correlations of immunogenic activity and expression of ESR1 and ERBB2. B. Correlations of immunogenic activity and pathway activity.
Figure 5 Correlation between immunogenic activity and the differential expression of genes or signaling pathways between TNBC and non-TNBC. A. Correlations of immunogenic activity and expression of ESR1 and ERBB2. B. Correlations of immunogenic activity and pathway activity.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Figure 6 Comparison of the levels of immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment between TNBC and non-TNBC. (A) TNBC shows significantly higher degree of immune cell infiltration than non-TNBC based on ESTIMATE evaluation. (B) TNBC has significantly different leukocyte cell subset infiltrates from non-TNBC based on CIBERSORT evaluation.
Figure 6 Comparison of the levels of immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment between TNBC and non-TNBC. (A) TNBC shows significantly higher degree of immune cell infiltration than non-TNBC based on ESTIMATE evaluation. (B) TNBC has significantly different leukocyte cell subset infiltrates from non-TNBC based on CIBERSORT evaluation.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

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Metadata

Authors
Liu, Z., Li, M., Jiang, Z., & Wang, X.
Affiliations
China Pharmaceutical University (CN)
Corresponding author
Wang, Xiaosheng
Venue
Translational Oncology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2018-04
Volume
11
Issue
2
Pages
311-329
ISSN
1936-5233 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2766581433
Cited by
275
References
69
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 9
FWCI
9.98
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Translational Oncology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
China Pharmaceutical University (2632018YX01, 3150120001)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Breast Cancer Treatment Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immune cells in cancer
Keywords
triple-negative breast cancer, tumor immunogenicity, immune pathways, immunotherapy, breast cancer subtypes, survival prediction, genomic data analysis

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