Matthew J. Grainge

Breast carcinomas are often infiltrated by inflammatory cells, particularly macrophages and T lymphocytes, but the significance of these cells remains unclear. One possible role of these inflammatory cells is that they represent a cell-mediated immune response against the carcinoma. CD8(+) lymphocytes are a known crucial component of cell-mediated immunity. The purpose of this study was to explore the prognostic value of tumor-infiltrating CD8(+) cytotoxic lymphocytes in breast cancer. Tumor-infiltrating CD8(+) lymphocytes were assessed by immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarray cores from 1,334 unselected breast tumors from patients with long-term follow-up. The number of CD8(+) T cells was counted in tumor nests (intratumoral), in stroma adjacent to tumor cells, and in stroma distant to tumor cells, and their relationship with clinical outcome was determined. The total number of CD8(+) cells was positively correlated with tumor grade (r(s) = 0.20; P < .001) and inversely correlated with patient's age at diagnosis, estrogen receptor-alpha (ER-α), and progesterone receptor (PgR) expression (Mann-Whitney U test, P < .001). The total patient cohort was randomly divided into two separate training and validation sets before performing univariate survival analysis. Total number and distant stromal CD8(+) lymphocytes were associated with better patient survival (P = .041 and P < .001, respectively) in the training set. In multivariate analysis, total CD8(+) T-cell count was an independent prognostic factor in both training and validation sets. These results suggest that tumor-infiltrating CD8(+) T lymphocytes have antitumor activity as judged by their favorable effect on patients' survival and could potentially be exploited in the treatment of breast cancer.

Objectives: The aim was to review the worldwide incidence and prevalence of SLE and variation with age, sex, ethnicity and time. Methods: A systematic search of MEDLINE and EMBASE search engines was carried out using Medical Subject Headings and keyword search terms for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus combined with incidence, prevalence and epidemiology in August 2013 and updated in September 2016. Author, journal, year of publication, country, region, case-finding method, study period, number of incident or prevalent cases, incidence (per 100 000 person-years) or prevalence (per 100 000 persons) and age, sex or ethnic group-specific incidence or prevalence were collected. Results: The highest estimates of incidence and prevalence of SLE were in North America [23.2/100 000 person-years (95% CI: 23.4, 24.0) and 241/100 000 people (95% CI: 130, 352), respectively]. The lowest incidences of SLE were reported in Africa and Ukraine (0.3/100 000 person-years), and the lowest prevalence was in Northern Australia (0 cases in a sample of 847 people). Women were more frequently affected than men for every age and ethnic group. Incidence peaked in middle adulthood and occurred later for men. People of Black ethnicity had the highest incidence and prevalence of SLE, whereas those with White ethnicity had the lowest incidence and prevalence. There appeared to be an increasing trend of SLE prevalence with time. Conclusion: There are worldwide differences in the incidence and prevalence of SLE that vary with sex, age, ethnicity and time. Further study of genetic and environmental risk factors may explain the reasons for these differences. More epidemiological studies in Africa are warranted.

PURPOSE: The three strongest prognostic determinants in operable breast cancer used in routine clinical practice are lymph node (LN) stage, primary tumor size, and histologic grade. However, grade is not included in the recent revision of the TNM staging system of breast cancer as its value is questioned in certain settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is based on a large and well-characterized consecutive series of operable breast cancer (2,219 cases), treated according to standard protocols in a single institution, with a long-term follow-up (median, 111 months) to assess the prognostic value of routine assessment of histologic grade using Nottingham histologic grading system. RESULTS: Histologic grade is strongly associated with both breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in the whole series as well as in different subgroups based on tumor size (pT1a, pT1b, pT1c, and pT2) and LN stages (pN0 and pN1 and pN2). Differences in survival were also noted between different individual grades (1, 2, and 3). Multivariate analyses showed that histologic grade is an independent predictor of both BCSS and DFS in operable breast cancer as a whole as well as in all studied subgroups. CONCLUSION: Histologic grade, as assessed by the Nottingham grading system, provides a strong predictor of outcome in patients with invasive breast cancer and should be incorporated in breast cancer staging systems.