Journal of Immunology Research

Clinical Study

Crucial Contributions by T Lymphocytes (Effector, Regulatory, and Checkpoint Inhibitor) and Cytokines (TH1, TH2, and TH17) to a Pathological Complete Response Induced by Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Women with Breast Cancer

Table 6

Blood⁽¹⁾ and tumour-infiltrating FOXP3⁺ and CTLA-4⁺ T cells in women with LLABCs⁽²⁾: significant reduction with NAC⁽³⁾.


T cell subsets ()	Groups	Pre-NAC Median (range)⁽⁴⁾	Post-NAC Median (range)	value⁽⁵⁾ Pre- versus post-NAC

FOXP3⁺	Intratumoural Infiltrating	14.8 (2.4–96.8)	0.7 (0–22.2)	0.001
	Stromal Infiltrating	15.9 (2.2–110.6)	1.4 (0.4–28.4)	0.001
	% Circulating	1.54 (0.62–3.40)	0.81 (0.25–1.85)	0.001
	AbN circulating⁽⁶⁾	170 (107–427)	159 (35–230)	0.001

CTLA-4⁺	Intratumoural Infiltrating	0.4 (0.0–4.0)	0.1 (0.0–1.2)	0.060
	Stromal infiltrating	0.6 (0.2–10.0)	0.1 (0.0–5.2)	0.029
	% circulating	1.31 (0.05–3.24)	0.72 (0.10–1.71)	0.017
	AbN circulating	15 (5–19)	6 (2–15)	0.001

Blood: data previously published (Verma et al., 2013 [21]); ⁽²⁾LLABCs: large and locally advanced breast cancers; ⁽³⁾NAC: neoadjuvant chemotherapy; ⁽⁴⁾average cell count per 400x high-power field; ⁽⁵⁾Wilcoxon signed rank test; ⁽⁶⁾AbN: absolute number (cells/mm³); statistically significant.