Immunological heterogeneity of stage I breast cancer:biological, population-based and prognostic value (international cooperation experience)

Aim is to examine the biological, population-based and prognostic value of immunological heterogeneity of stage I breast cancer (BC) in two independent populations (Russian and Dutch).materials and methods: we studied the clinical, morphological characteristics and disease course in 518 patients with stage I BC, who received treatment in N.N.Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, in the Hospital of Russian Medical Academy for Postgraduate Education of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (n=315) and in Leiden University Medical Center - LUMC (n=203) between 1985 and 2010 years. Tumor tissue paraffin blocks had been examined at the LUMC; morphological characteristics were included the de-gree of anaplasia, histological type (solid tumor slide) and tumor markers (ER, PR, HER2, Ki67, HC10, HCA2, HLA-E, HLA-G, Foxp3), whose expression was validated by immunohistochemistry on tumor tissue microarrays. The expression of immune markers, the immunological heterogeneity of stage I BC were studied in Russian and Dutch women, and we also indicated 3 types of tumor immunogenicity (high, moderate, low). We studied population and prognostic role of immunogenicity as a further prediction in patients with stage I BC (in the general group, subgroups of patients treating with/without adjuvant systemic therapy). Statistical analysis was performed using international statistical program SPSS 20.0; differences were considered statistically significant when p