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Updated: Mar 18, 2026
Author Spotlight: A Model to Study the Systemic and Local Dynamics of CD8+ T Cells During LN Metastasis
Published on: January 26, 2024
The Correlation Between CD8+ Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes and the Efficacy of Neoadjuvant Therapy in Breast Cancer
Guosheng Feng1, Mingqiang Zhong2, Danmin Xie1
1Department of Medical Oncology, The People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, People's Republic of China.
Objective:
This study aims to investigate the correlation between the CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) expression and the efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) in breast cancer, while previous studies have reported inconsistent findings regarding the predictive value of CD8+ TILs.
Methods:
Data from 94 breast cancer patients who underwent NAT between January 2017 and June 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Preoperative CD8+ TILs expression was evaluated through immunohistochemistry, and its association with clinical and pathological responses to NAT was assessed.
Results:
Univariate analysis indicated that tumor stage, axillary lymph node status, and intratumoral CD8+ TILs were correlated with clinical complete response (cCR). Multivariate analysis identified intratumoral CD8+ TILs as an independent predictor of cCR (OR 3.038; p=0.02). Patients achieving pathological complete response (pCR) exhibited significantly higher intratumoral CD8+ TILs expression compared to those without (p=0.04). Univariate analysis also linked estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), HER2 status, and intratumoral CD8+ TILs to pCR, with multivariate analysis confirming intratumoral CD8+ TILs as an independent predictor (OR 4.036; p=0.02).
Conclusion:
Our findings suggest that intratumoral CD8+ TILs are an independent predictor of the efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy in breast cancer. In the future, incorporating intratumoral CD8+ TILs into existing clinicopathological predictive models and combining their assessment with other immune biomarkers may enable the development of more robust predictive tools, thereby providing a solid foundation for truly individualized and precision-based neoadjuvant treatment in breast cancer.
