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 7

Blood⁽¹⁾ and tumour-infiltrating FOXP3⁺ and CTLA-4⁺ T cells (post-NAC) in women with LLABCs⁽²⁾ and pathological response elicited in tumours following NAC⁽³⁾.

T cell subsets	Groups ()	Intratumoural; Median (range)^(4)	value	Stromal; Median (range)	value	% blood; Median (range)	value	AbN blood; Median (range)^(5)	value^(6)
FOXP3^+	GPR ()^(7)	0.0 (0.0–2.4)	0.016	0.8 (0.4–7.4)	0.252	0.53 (0.25–0.90)	0.001	166 (35–230)	0.470
	PPR ()^(8)	2.2 (0.6–22.2)		1.4 (1.0–28.4)		1.18 (0.80–1.85)		157 (118–168)
	PCR ()^(9)	0.0 (0.0–0.0)	<0.001	1.3 (0.4–7.4)	0.635	0.35 (0.25–0.90)	0.007	173 (49–230)	0.313
	Non PCR ()	1.8 (0.6–22.2)		1.4 (0.4–28.4)		1.15 (0.53–1.85)		158 (35–177)
CTLA-4^+	GPR ()	0.0 (0.0–1.2)	0.114	0.0 (0.0–1.2)	0.299	0.58 (0.10–1.71)	0.299	5 (2–7)	0.008
	PPR ()	0.4 (0.0–1.2)		0.4 (0.0–5.2)		0.89 (0.37–1.69)		7 (6–15)
	PCR ()	0.0 (0.0–1.0)	0.118	0.0 (0.0–0.2)	0.181	0.55 (0.10–1.25)	0.220	5.5 (2–7)	0.181
	Non PCR ()	0.3 (0.0–1.2)		0.3 (0.0–5.2)		0.77 (0.37–1.71)		6.5 (4–15)

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⁾AbN: absolute number (cells/mm³); ⁽⁶⁾Mann–Whitney test; ⁽⁷⁾GPR (good pathological response, grades 5 and 4): no residual invasive disease, >90% loss of invasive disease, respectively; ⁽⁸⁾PPR (poor pathological response, grades 3, 2, and 1): 30–90% loss of invasive disease, <30% loss of invasive disease, and no loss of tumour cells, respectively; ⁽⁹⁾PCR (pathological complete response, grade 5): no residual invasive disease; statistically significant.