{"entity":{"id":"paper-loi-tils-pooled-early-tnbc-jco-2019","kind":"paper","name":"Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and prognosis: a pooled individual patient analysis of early-stage triple-negative breast cancers","aka":[],"tldr":"Pooling 2,148 women from nine studies showed that every extra 10% of immune cells in the tumour stroma cut the risk of relapse by about 13%, and node-negative patients with 30% or more had a 97% chance of being free of distant relapse at three years.","summary":"Individual data from 2,148 early TNBC patients in nine studies treated with anthracycline-based chemotherapy with or without taxanes were pooled; stromal TILs were scored the same way in each. Average sTILs were 23% (SD 20%) and 77% had 1% or more; sTILs were lower with older age, larger tumours, nodal involvement and lower grade. In multivariable models sTILs added independent prognostic information for invasive disease-free, distant disease-free and overall survival; each 10% increment gave hazard ratios of 0.87, 0.83 and 0.84. In node-negative patients with sTILs 30% or more, three-year iDFS was 92%, D-DFS 97% and OS 99%.","asOf":"2026-09-24","links":[{"label":"Loi et al., J Clin Oncol 2019: pooled analysis of stromal TILs in 2,148 early TNBC patients","url":"https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.18.01010"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30650045/"},{"label":"TILs in breast cancer prognostic model","url":"https://www.tilsinbreastcancer.org"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["tnbc","tnbc-early"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["tils"],"trials":[],"people":["loi-sherene","martine-piccart"],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":["jco"],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"journal":"Journal of Clinical Oncology","year":2019,"doi":"10.1200/JCO.18.01010","pmid":"30650045","authors":"Loi S, Drubay D, Adams S, et al.","paperType":"meta-analysis","findings":["Mean sTILs 23%; 77% of patients at 1% or more.","Each 10% sTIL increment: iDFS HR 0.87, D-DFS 0.83, OS 0.84.","Node-negative, sTILs 30% or more: three-year D-DFS 97%, OS 99%."],"whatItMeans":"TILs are the strongest cheap prognostic biomarker in early TNBC, scored on a standard slide, and the basis of the de-escalation trials that omit chemotherapy in small, lymphocyte-rich tumours.","caveats":["Retrospective pooling of chemotherapy-treated trial patients.","Scoring reproducibility depends on the International TIL Working Group method."],"changedPractice":true,"participants":2148},"route":"/key-papers/paper-loi-tils-pooled-early-tnbc-jco-2019/","neighbours":{"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/"}],"term":[{"id":"tils","kind":"term","name":"Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs)","route":"/terms/tils/"}],"person":[{"id":"martine-piccart","kind":"person","name":"Martine Piccart","route":"/people/martine-piccart/"},{"id":"loi-sherene","kind":"person","name":"Sherene Loi","route":"/people/loi-sherene/"}],"journal":[{"id":"jco","kind":"journal","name":"Journal of Clinical Oncology","route":"/journals/jco/"}]}}