三阴性乳腺癌中 Galectin 9 表达与免疫细胞浸润、程序性死亡配体-1 表达及患者临床结局的关联

Galectin-9 (Gal-9) is an immune checkpoint protein that facilitates T cell exhaustion and modulates the tumor-associated microenvironment, and could be a potential target for immune checkpoint inhibition.

This study was conducted to assess Gal-9 expression in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and evaluate its association with programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression and immune cell infiltration in tumors and the clinical outcome of patients.

Overall, 109 patients with TNBC were included. Gal-9 expression was assessed its relationships with tumor clinicopathologic characteristics, tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) levels, PD-L1+ immune cells, and tumor cells by tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry. Low Gal-9 expression was statistically correlated with higher tumor stage (p = 0.

031) and presence of lymphovascular invasion ( p = 0. 008). High Gal-9 expression was associated with a high level of stromal TILs (sTIL; p = 0. 011) and positive PD-L1 expression on tumor cells ( p = 0. 004). In survival analyses, low Gal-9 expression was associated with significantly poor OS ( p = 0. 013) in patients with TNBC with PD-L1 negativity in tumor cells.

Our findings suggest that increased Gal-9 expression is associated with changes in the antitumor microenvironment, such as increased immune cell infiltration and antimetastatic changes.

This study emphasizes the predictive value and promising clinical applications of Gal-9 in TNBC.