Clinical Significance of Immunoscore in Triple Negative Breast Cancer and Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2+ Breast Cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women in the world. Advancements have been made in respect to the diagnosis and management of breast cancer. In this review we are going to look at immunoscore as an additional method of predicting prognosis as well as treatment for patients with TNBC and HER2+ breast cancer. At the moment the Immunoscore strategy has advanced in colon cancer but for breast cancer the TNM classification is the only standardized method for grading as well as predicting prognosis in breast cancer patients. Metastasis and growth of breast tumors are largely influenced by the immune contexture. In invasive breast cancer, response to chemotherapy and prognosis are predicted by a higher immune cell count. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are immune cells that have migrated to the tumor tissue and the local microenvironment. This population is indicative of an immune response generated by the patient against the malignancy. In TNBC and HER2+ disease in particular, the presence of TILs has been shown to correlate with a good prognosis and good response to chemotherapy. Thus, an implementation of immunoscore in breast cancer could be a good tool in terms prognosis as well as a predictive tool.