Positive impact of autophagy in human breast cancer cells on local immunosurveillance

In human breast cancer cells, the presence of cytoplasmic dots positive for microtubule-associated proteins 1A/1B light chain 3B (LC3B) indicates enhanced autophagic flux and favorable prognosis. LC3B(+) puncta within malignant cells positively correlate with the intratumoral abundance of CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocytes, yet negatively correlate with the frequency of local FOXP3(+) regulatory T cells and CD68(+) tumor-associated macrophages, resulting in an improvement of CD8(+)/FOXP+ or CD8(+)/CD68(+) ratios.