Prognostic Significance of Peripheral Blood Flow Cytometry Parameters in Patients with Non-Metastatic Breast Cancer

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Immune functions and their relation to prognosis in breast cancer patients have become areasof great interest in recent years. Correlations between survival outcomes and peripheral blood flow cytometryparameters are therefore of interest. Here we focused on patients with non-metastatic breast cancer (BC).Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: A total of 29 patients with pathological confirmed breast carcinoma and flow cytometrydata were assessed for overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS). <br/><b>Results</b>: The median age of thepatients was 54 years (range, 29-83). Multivariate analysis revealed that OS was significantly associated withabsolute cytotoxic T cell count (95%CI, coef 2.26, p=0.035), tumor size (95%CI, coef -14.5, p 0.004), chemotherapy(95%CI, coef 12.9, p 0.0001), MFI of CD4 (95%CI, coef -5.1, P 0.04), MFI of HLA DR (95%CI, coef -5.9, p0.008) and tumor grade (95%CI, coef -13, P 0.049) with R-Sq(adj)=67%. Similar findings were obtained forPFS. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: OS and PFS were significantly associated with tumor grade, tumor size, chemotherapy, MFIof CD4, HLA DR and absolute cytotoxic T cell count. The study revealed that MFI of basic CD markers andabsolute cytotoxic T cell number may be a prognostic factors in women with non-metastatic BC.