Publication
Tumor Cellularity and Infiltrating Lymphocytes (CelTIL) as a Survival Surrogate in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Journal Paper/Review - Mar 31, 2021
Chic Nuria, Prat Aleix, Huober Jens, Saura Cristina, Di Cosimo Serena, Láng István, de Azambuja Evandro, Wang Yingbo, Hilbers Florentine, Fumagalli Debora, Salgado Roberto, Nuciforo Paolo, Luen Stephen J, Loi Sherene
Units
PubMed
Doi
Citation
Type
Journal
Publication Date
Issn Electronic
Brief description/objective
In early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, biomarkers that guide de-escalation and/or escalation of systemic therapy are needed. CelTIL score is a novel, combined biomarker based on stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and tumor cellularity and determined in tumor biopsies at week 2 of anti-HER2 therapy only. We evaluated the prognostic value of CelTIL in 196 patients with early-stage HER2-positive disease treated with standard trastuzumab-based chemotherapy in the NeoALTTO phase III trial. Using a pre-specified CelTIL cutoff, a better 5-year event-free survival and overall survival was observed between CelTIL-high and CelTIL-low score with a 76.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 68.0%-85.0%) versus 59.7% (95% CI = 50.0%-72.0%) (hazard ratio = 0.40; 95% CI = 0.17 to 0.94), and 86.4% (95% CI = 80.0%-94.0%) vs 73.5% (95% CI = 64.0%-84.0%) (hazard ratio = 0.43; 95% CI = 0.20 to 0.92), respectively. Statistical significance was maintained after adjusting for baseline TILs, hormone receptor status, pre-treatment tumor size and nodal status, type of surgery, treatment arm, and pathological complete response. Further studies to support CelTIL as an early read-out biomarker to help de-escalate/escalate systemic therapy in HER2-positive breast cancer seem warranted.