{"entity":{"id":"paper-denkert-tils-neoadjuvant-pooled-lancet-oncol-2018","kind":"paper","name":"Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes and prognosis in different subtypes of breast cancer: a pooled analysis of 3771 patients treated with neoadjuvant therapy","aka":[],"tldr":"In 906 triple-negative patients from six German trials, half of the tumours with dense lymphocytes disappeared completely on chemotherapy before surgery against under a third of those with few, and more lymphocytes meant longer survival.","summary":"Pre-treatment core biopsies from 3,771 patients in six German Breast Group neoadjuvant trials were scored for stromal TILs by International TIL Working Group methods in three groups: low (0 to 10%), intermediate (11 to 59%) and high (60% or more). In TNBC, pCR was 31% (80 of 260) with low, 31% (117 of 373) with intermediate and 50% (136 of 273) with high TILs (P less than 0.0001); a 10% TIL increase was associated with longer disease-free survival (HR 0.93) and overall survival (HR 0.92). TILs predicted response in all subtypes but were an adverse survival factor in luminal-HER2-negative disease.","asOf":"2026-09-24","links":[{"label":"Denkert et al., Lancet Oncol 2018: TILs in 3,771 neoadjuvant patients from six German Breast Group trials","url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30904-X"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29233559/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["tnbc","tnbc-early","breast-cancer"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":["gbg"],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["tils","pcr"],"trials":[],"people":["carsten-denkert","sibylle-loibl"],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":["lancet-oncology"],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"journal":"The Lancet Oncology","year":2018,"doi":"10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30904-X","pmid":"29233559","authors":"Denkert C, von Minckwitz G, Darb-Esfahani S, et al.","paperType":"meta-analysis","findings":["TNBC (906 patients): high TILs (60% or more) in 273, 30%; pCR 50% with high versus 31% with low TILs.","10% TIL increase: TNBC disease-free survival HR 0.93, overall survival HR 0.92.","TILs were adverse for survival in luminal-HER2-negative disease."],"whatItMeans":"It fixes the lymphocyte-predominant share of TNBC at about 30% and shows TILs predict chemotherapy response before immunotherapy enters the picture.","caveats":["Trial populations; non-standard regimens in some trials.","Three-band grouping; continuous scoring is now preferred."],"changedPractice":false,"participants":3771},"route":"/key-papers/paper-denkert-tils-neoadjuvant-pooled-lancet-oncol-2018/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"breast-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Breast cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/breast-cancer/"},{"id":"tnbc-early","kind":"cancer","name":"Early triple-negative breast cancer","route":"/cancers/tnbc-early/"},{"id":"tnbc","kind":"cancer","name":"Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)","route":"/cancers/tnbc/"}],"company":[{"id":"gbg","kind":"company","name":"German Breast Group (GBG)","route":"/companies/gbg/"}],"term":[{"id":"pcr","kind":"term","name":"Pathologic complete response (pCR)","route":"/terms/pcr/"},{"id":"tils","kind":"term","name":"Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs)","route":"/terms/tils/"}],"person":[{"id":"carsten-denkert","kind":"person","name":"Carsten Denkert","route":"/people/carsten-denkert/"},{"id":"sibylle-loibl","kind":"person","name":"Sibylle Loibl","route":"/people/sibylle-loibl/"}],"journal":[{"id":"lancet-oncology","kind":"journal","name":"The Lancet Oncology","route":"/journals/lancet-oncology/"}]}}