VEGF-A Is Associated With the Degree of TILs and PD-L1 Expression in Primary Breast Cancer.

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIM:

Vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), an important angiogenic factor, has been reported to effect cancer growth and development. Recent reports indicated that anti-VEGF therapy has an important effect of enhancing anti-tumor immunity in various cancers. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between VEGF-A expression and immunological factors, including programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and the degrees of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in breast cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

This study enrolled 97 cases with invasive breast cancer who had undergone surgery without preoperative therapy. The grades of stromal-TILs were evaluated using the criteria of the International Working Group for TILs in breast cancer: low, intermediate, and high. VEGF-A and PD-L1 positivity were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. The relationship between VEGF-A expression and the expression of PD-L1 and TILs was investigated.

RESULTS:

Among the 97 cases, 37 (38.1%) had positive VEGF-A expression in the breast tumor. We divided the cases in two groups based on the VEGF-A expression levels. The analysis revealed that PD-L1 positivity was significantly associated with VEGF-A expression in the breast tumor (29.7% vs. 10.0%, p=0.014). Among the cases with positive PD-L1, 36.7% of VEGF-positive cases and none of VEGF-negative cases had low TILs in the breast tumor.

CONCLUSION:

VEGF-A expression in breast cancer may reflect PD-L1 expression in the tumor. VEGF-A may act as a negative biomarker of TILs in PD-L1-positive breast cancer. Our results suggest that VEGF-A may be predictive of immunological features and may serve as a useful biomarker for immuno-targeting therapy in patients with breast cancer.

• Authors: Takaaki Fujii, Tomoko Hirakata, Sasagu Kurozumi, Shoko Tokuda, Yuko Nakazawa, Sayaka Obayashi, Reina Yajima, Tetsunari Oyama, Ken Shirabe
• Journal: In vivo (Athens, Greece) (In Vivo) 2020 Sep-Oct Vol. 34 Issue 5 Pg. 2641-2646 ISSN: 1791-7549 [Electronic] Greece
• PMID: 32871794 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright© 2020, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• B7-H1 Antigen
• VEGFA protein, human
• Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

Topics

• B7-H1 Antigen (genetics)
• Breast Neoplasms (drug therapy, genetics)
• Female
• Humans
• Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating
• Prognosis
• Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (genetics)