The high density of CD204-positive macrophages predicts worse clinical prognosis in patients with breast cancer

Summary

Recent studies have indicated the clinical significance of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in several malignant tumors including breast cancer. Although recent studies have focused on CD68-positive or CD163-positive TAMs in breast cancer, no study has investigated the significance of CD204-positive TAMs in breast cancer. We found that CD204 expression by macrophages was evaluated following stimulation with the conditioned medium (CM) of breast cancer cell lines. Paraffin sections of 149 breast cancer samples which were diagnosed as invasive ductal carcinoma were immunohistochemically analyzed for CD68, CD163, and CD204 expression. The result of analyses indicated that a high number of CD204-positive TAMs was associated with worse clinical prognoses, including relapse-free survival, distant relapse-free survival, and breast cancer-specific survival, however, neither the numbers of CD68-positive or CD163-positive TAMs were associated to clinical courses. Of the clinicopathological factors investigated, estrogen receptor, Ki-67 index, and hormone subtype were significantly related to the increased number of CD163- and CD204-positive TAMs. These data indicate the clinical significance of CD204-positive TAMs in breast cancer progression and CD204 is a marker for predicting clinical prognosis in breast cancer.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

http://ift.tt/2qOHSKP