Expression of Tumor-Related Macrophages and Cytokines After Surgery of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Patients and its Implications

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has negative expression of progesterone receptor (PR) and estrogen receptor (ER), and low expression of human epithelial growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2). This study aimed to investigate the expressional profile of cytokines in TNBC patients with significant expression of macrophages. Material/Methods: Immunohistochemical (IHC) S-P staining method was used to detect the tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) marker CD68 expression in 48 cases of TNBC samples. The correlation between CD68 expression and prognosis was analyzed. Expressions of key cytokines - interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-10, IL-12, IL-1 beta, chemokine (C-C motif) ligand-5 (CCL-5), and macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) - were quantified by RT-PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: Thirty-four out of 48 TNBC samples (71.4%) had CD68-positive expression. IL-6 and CCL-5 were up-regulated in high-infiltrated tumors when compared to low-infiltrated samples. Other cytokines had no significant difference regarding the expression level across groups. Conclusions: TAMs were up-regulated in most TNBC patients after the surgery. Its expression suggested unfavorable prognosis, especially in the high-infiltrated group. Those tumors with more macrophage also had elevated expression of cytokine IL-6 and chemotactic factor CCL-5, both of which have potency to be clinical index and drug target for TNBC.