Comparison of the tumor immune microenvironment of primary hormone receptor-negative HER2-positive and triple negative breast cancer

Hanne Vos; Kathleen Lambein; François Richard; Bram Mariën; Ines Nevelsteen; Kevin Punie; Hans Wildiers; Lieze Berben; Annouschka Laenen; Giuseppe Floris; Christine Desmedt; Ann Smeets

doi:10.1038/s41523-021-00332-7

Comparison of the tumor immune microenvironment of primary hormone receptor-negative HER2-positive and triple negative breast cancer

NPJ Breast Cancer. 2021 Sep 23;7(1):128. doi: 10.1038/s41523-021-00332-7.

Authors

Hanne Vos¹, Kathleen Lambein¹, François Richard², Bram Mariën¹, Ines Nevelsteen^{1

3}, Kevin Punie^{3

4}, Hans Wildiers^{3

4}, Lieze Berben⁴, Annouschka Laenen⁵, Giuseppe Floris^{3

6}, Christine Desmedt^#⁷, Ann Smeets^#^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgical Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven; Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
² Laboratory for Translational Breast Cancer Research, Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
³ Multidisciplinary Breast Centre, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
⁴ Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, Department of General Medical Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
⁵ Leuven Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics Centre (L-BioStat), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
⁶ Laboratory of Translational Cell & Tissue Research, Department of Imaging and Pathology, University Hospitals Leuven, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
⁷ Laboratory for Translational Breast Cancer Research, Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. [email protected].
⁸ Department of Surgical Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven; Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. [email protected].
⁹ Multidisciplinary Breast Centre, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The vast majority of studies investigating immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) in patients with breast cancer have focused on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). In this study, we compared the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) between TNBC and hormone receptor-negative HER2-positive breast cancer based on a selection of immune markers at the protein level in an institutional retrospective series. Additionally, we performed a similar comparison using publicly available transcriptomics data. Altogether, the results show a comparable TIME in both groups, with possible implications for the use of ICI in patients with hormone receptor-negative HER2-positive breast tumors.