Prognostic value of a mRNA immune infiltrate signature on histopathological breast cancer subtypes of lymph node-negative primary operable breast cancer

Chapter 4 Prognostic value of a mRNA immune infiltrate signature on histopathological breast cancer subtypes of lymph node-negative primary operable breast cancer 92 Abstract Introduction Cancer related inflammation plays a key role in cancer progression and has been reported to be able to both promote and inhibit tumour growth. In breast cancer the prognostic value of a general tumour inflammatory cell infiltrate is controversial. This can in part be explained by the use of small heterogeneous patient groups and varying methodologies for assessing tumour cell infiltrates. We have defined a gene expression immune infiltrate signature representing a general tumour inflammatory cell infiltrate which can easily be applied to large genome wide expression datasets to identify relatively poor from highly immune infiltrated breast cancer samples.