ArticleNPJ breast cancer2020
Pitfalls in assessing stromal tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) in breast cancer.
Abstract read
In one paragraph
Article in NPJ breast cancer, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 133 papers.
0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
133citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
133 citing papers in PubMed.
- Associations between tumor immune response and prognosis in node-negative breast cancer patients in the randomized DBCG HYPO trial.BMC cancer · 2026Trial
- Prognostic value of visually and computationally assessed tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TBCRC-030).Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2026Trial
- Clinicopathological and molecular predictors of [European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging · 2024Trial
- Impact of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) on response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative early breast cancer in the WSG-ADAPT TN trial.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2022Trial
- The immunology of human breast cancer.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2026Review
- Artificial intelligence-based tumour infiltrating lymphocyte quantification in patients with triple-negative breast cancer: an independent validation study.The Lancet. Oncology · 2026Article
- Enhancing Translation of H&E to IHC with Robust Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Quantification Using Deep Generative Models: A Feasibility Study.Journal of imaging informatics in medicine · 2026Article
- Longitudinal evaluation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte scoring using automated region of interest registration in breast cancer.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2026Article
- Risk stratification and relapse pattern in triple-negative breast cancer with pathological complete response after neoadjuvant treatment: the European GAMBIT real-world study.Nature communications · 2026Observational
- Article
- Analysis of computational tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer from the results of the TIGER challenge.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Review
- Clinical potential and challenges of spatially profiling tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in early-stage breast cancer.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Clinical and histopathological characterization of metastatic lobular breast cancer: lessons learned from post-mortem tissue donation programs.NPJ breast cancer · 2026Article
- Automated quantification of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes by machine learning reveals prognostic and immunogenomic features in lung cancer.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- TILseg: Automated Whole Slide-Level Spatial Scoring of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Reveals Prognostic Patterns in Triple Negative Breast Cancer.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Emerging Predictive Biomarkers of Immunotherapy Sensitivity in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.ImmunoTargets and therapy · 2026Review
- Beyond molecular classification: integrating signaling, subcellular, and immune reprogramming in endometrial cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Issues and missed opportunities in lymph node assessment after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.The Journal of pathology · 2025Review
- Seven Shades of Triple Negativity: A Review Unveiling the Low-Grade Spectrum of Breast Cancer.Cancers · 2025Review
73 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
94 authors.
Zuzana KosDepartment of Pathology, BC Cancer - Vancouver, Vancouver, BC Canada.
Elvire Roblin2Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Gustave Roussy, University Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France.
Rim S Kim4National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP)/NRG Oncology, Pittsburgh, PA USA.
Stefan Michiels2Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Gustave Roussy, University Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France.
Brandon D Gallas5Division of Imaging, Diagnostics, and Software Reliability (DIDSR); Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories (OSEL); Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), Silver Spring, MD USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7332-1620
Weijie Chen5Division of Imaging, Diagnostics, and Software Reliability (DIDSR); Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories (OSEL); Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), Silver Spring, MD USA.
Koen K van de Vijver6Department of Pathology, University Hospital Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0002-2026-9790
Shom Goel8The Sir Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC Australia.
Sylvia Adams10Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York University Medical School, New York, NY USA.
Sandra Demaria11Departments of Radiation Oncology and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4426-0499
Giuseppe Viale12Department of Pathology, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Torsten O Nielsen13Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Sunil S Badve14Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-8861-9980
W Fraser Symmans15Department of Pathology, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1526-184X
Christos Sotiriou16Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Jules Bordet, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
David L Rimm17Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT USA.ORCID 0000-0001-5820-4397
Stephen Hewitt18Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD USA.
Carsten Denkert19Institute of Pathology, Universitätsklinikum Gießen und Marburg GmbH, Standort Marburg and Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
Sibylle Loibl20German Breast Group, Neu-Isenburg, Germany.
Stephen J Luen9Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria Australia.
John M S Bartlett22Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, ON Canada.
Peter Savas9Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-5999-428X
Giancarlo Pruneri24Department of Pathology, IRCCS Fondazione Instituto Nazionale Tumori and University of Milan, School of Medicine, Milan, Italy.
Deborah A Dillon25Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA USA.
Maggie Chon U Cheang27Institute of Cancer Research Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit, The Institute of Cancer Research, Surrey, UK.
Andrew Tutt28Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK.
Jacqueline A HallVivactiv Ltd, Bellingdon, Bucks, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-0708-1360
Marleen Kok30Department of Medical Oncology and Division of Tumor Biology & Immunology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Hugo M Horlings6Department of Pathology, University Hospital Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0003-4782-8828
Anant Madabhushi32Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH USA.
Jeroen van der Laak34Computational Pathology Group, Department of Pathology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0001-7982-0754
Francesco Ciompi34Computational Pathology Group, Department of Pathology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Anne-Vibeke Laenkholm35Department of Surgical Pathology Zealand University Hospital, Køge, Denmark.
Enrique Bellolio36Departamento de Anatomía Patológica, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile.ORCID 0000-0003-0079-5264
Tina GruossoForbius, Montreal, QC Canada.
Stephen B Fox8The Sir Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC Australia.
Juan Carlos Araya39Department of Pathology, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile.ORCID 0000-0003-3501-8203
Giuseppe Floris40KU Leuven- Univerisity of Leuven, Department of Imaging and Pathology, Laboratory of Translational Cell & Tissue Research and KU Leuven- University Hospitals Leuven, Department of Pathology, Leuven, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0003-2391-5425
Jan Hudeček41Department of Research IT, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0003-1071-5686
Leonie Voorwerk42Division of Tumor Biology & Immunology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Andrew H Beck43PathAI, Inc, Boston, MA USA.
Jen Kerner43PathAI, Inc, Boston, MA USA.
Denis Larsimont44Department of Pathology, Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, Belgium.
Sabine DeclercqDepartment of Pathology, GZA-ZNA, Antwerp, Belgium.
Gert Van den EyndenDepartment of Pathology, GZA-ZNA, Antwerp, Belgium.
Lajos Pusztai46Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT USA.
Anna Ehinger47Department of Clinical Genetics and Pathology, Skåne University Hospital, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.ORCID 0000-0001-9225-7396
Wentao Yang48Department of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Centre, Shanghai, China.
Khalid AbdulJabbar49Centre for Evolution and Cancer; Division of Molecular Pathology, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK.
Yinyin Yuan49Centre for Evolution and Cancer; Division of Molecular Pathology, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK.
Rajendra Singh50Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, New York, NY 10029 USA.
Crispin Hiley51Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, University College London Cancer Institute, University College London, London, UK.
Maise Al Bakir51Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, University College London Cancer Institute, University College London, London, UK.
Alexander J Lazar52Departments of Pathology, Genomic Medicine, Dermatology, and Translational Molecular Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6395-4499
Stephen Naber53Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, USA.
Stephan WienertCharité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Institute of Pathology, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
Miluska Castillo55Department of Medical Oncology and Research, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas, Lima, 15038 Peru.ORCID 0000-0002-0111-3176
Giuseppe Curigliano56University of Milan, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, IRCCS, Milan, Italy.ORCID 0000-0003-1781-2518
Maria-Vittoria Dieci57Medical Oncology 2, Istituto Oncologico Veneto IOV - IRCCS, Padova, Italy.
Fabrice André59Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France.
Charles Swanton51Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, University College London Cancer Institute, University College London, London, UK.
Jorge Reis-Filho61Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY USA.
Joseph Sparano63Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9031-2010
Eva Balslev64Department of Pathology, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Herlev, Denmark.
I-Chun Chen65Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Elisabeth Ida Specht Stovgaard64Department of Pathology, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Herlev, Denmark.
Katherine Pogue-Geile4National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP)/NRG Oncology, Pittsburgh, PA USA.
Kim R M Blenman46Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT USA.
Frédérique Penault-Llorca68Centre de Lutte contre le cancer - Centre Jean Perrin, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Stuart Schnitt25Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA USA.
Sunil R Lakhani69The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research and Pathology Queensland, Brisbane, QLD Australia.
Anne Vincent-SalomonInstitut Curie, Paris Sciences Lettres Université, Inserm U934, Department of Pathology, Paris, France.
Federico Rojo71Pathology Department, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz (IIS-FJD) - CIBERONC, Madrid, Spain.
Jeremy P Braybrooke73Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford and Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-1943-7360
Matthew G Hanna61Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7536-1746
M Teresa Soler-Monsó74Department of Pathology, Bellvitge University Hospital, IDIBELL. Breast Unit. Catalan Institut of Oncology. L 'Hospitalet del Llobregat', Barcelona, 08908 Catalonia Spain.
Daniel Bethmann75University Hospital Halle (Saale), Institute of Pathology, Halle (Saale), Germany.
Carlos A Castaneda55Department of Medical Oncology and Research, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas, Lima, 15038 Peru.
Karen Willard-Gallo76Molecular Immunology Unit, Institut Jules Bordet, Universitè Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0002-1150-1295
Ashish Sharma77Department of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1011-6504
Huang-Chun Lien78Department of Pathology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Susan Fineberg79Department of Pathology, Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY USA.
Jeppe Thagaard80DTU Compute, Department of Applied Mathematics, Technical University of Denmark; Visiopharm A/S, Hørsholm, Denmark.
Laura Comerma72GEICAM-Spanish Breast Cancer Research Group, Madrid, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-0249-4636
Paula Gonzalez-Ericsson82Breast Cancer Program, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6292-6963
Edi Brogi61Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY USA.
Sherene Loi9Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-6137-9171
Joel Saltz83Biomedical Informatics Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY USA.
Frederick Klaushen84Institute of Pathology, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Lee Cooper85Department of Pathology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL USA.ORCID 0000-0002-3504-4965
Mohamed Amgad86Department of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA USA.
David A Moore87Department of Pathology, UCL Cancer Institute, UCL, London, UK.
Roberto Salgado21Division of Research and Cancer Medicine, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC Australia.
International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group
Funding
X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHYP30CA008748 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES · PI Hongbiao Carl Lekaye · 1985 to 2026
$347.4MNRG Oncology Network Group Operations Center - GY9 BIQSFP Reports/BudgetsU10CA180868 · NCI · NRG ONCOLOGY FOUNDATION, INC. · PI NORMAN WOLMARK · 2014 to 2026
$206.8MVanderbilt Clinical Oncology Research Career Development ProgramK12CA090625 · NCI · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · PI Debra L. Friedman, Paula Jill Hurley · 2001 to 2026
$16.9MMontefiore Academic Community NCORP ProgramUG1CA189859 · NCI · MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER (BRONX, NY) · PI Balazs Halmos, Della Makower · 2014 to 2026
$10.8MTCIA Sustainment and Scalability - Platforms for Quantitative Imaging Informatics in Precision MedicineU24CA215109 · NCI · UNIV OF ARKANSAS FOR MED SCIS · PI BANERJEE, IMON, PRIOR, FRED WILLIAM · 2017 to 2021
$8.5MComputerized histologic image predictor of cancer outcomeR01CA202752 · NCI · CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY · PI FELDMAN, MICHAEL D, GANESAN, SHRIDAR · 2016 to 2020
$3.1MQuantitative Histomorphometric Risk Classifier (QuHbIC) in HPV + Oropharyngeal CarcinomaR01CA220581 · NCI · CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY · PI KOYFMAN, SHLOMO, LEWIS, JAMES · 2018 to 2023
$3.1MComputerized Histologic Risk Predictor (CHiRP) for Early Stage Lung CancersR01CA216579 · NCI · EMORY UNIVERSITY · PI FU, PINGFU, LLOYD, MARK · 2018 to 2023
$3.1MMR Fingerprinting and Computerized Decision Support for Prostate CancerR01CA208236 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI GULANI, VIKAS, PONSKY, LEE EVAN · 2017 to 2022
$3.0MPathology Image Informatics Platform for visualization, analysis and managementU24CA199374 · NCI · CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY · PI GURCAN, METIN NAFI, MADABHUSHI, ANANT · 2015 to 2019
$2.9MHistoTools: A suite of digital pathology tools for quality control, annotation and dataset identificationU01CA239055 · NCI · CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY · PI JANOWCZYK, ANDREW ROBERT, MADABHUSHI, ANANT · 2019 to 2022
$1.0MMethods and Tools for Integrating Pathomics Data into Cancer RegistriesUG3CA225021 · NCI · STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK · PI DURBIN, ERIC B., FORAN, DAVID J · 2018 to 2019
$815kBLRD VA I01 BX004121Cancer Research UK 24869Cancer Research UK 25223Cancer Research UK 25351Cancer Research UK 28990Medical Research Council MC_UP_1203/1NCI NIH HHS K12 CA090625NCI NIH HHS P30 CA008748NCI NIH HHS R01 CA202752NCI NIH HHS R01 CA208236NCI NIH HHS R01 CA216579NCI NIH HHS R01 CA220581NCI NIH HHS U01 CA239055NCI NIH HHS U10 CA180868NCI NIH HHS U24 CA199374NCI NIH HHS U24 CA215109NCI NIH HHS UG1 CA189859NCI NIH HHS UG3 CA225021NCRR NIH HHS C06 RR012463Wellcome Trust FC001169Wellcome Trust FC001202
Abstract
Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are important prognostic and predictive biomarkers in triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancer. Incorporating sTILs into clinical practice necessitates reproducible assessment. Previously developed standardized scoring guidelines have been widely embraced by the clinical and research communities. We evaluated sources of variability in sTIL assessment by pathologists in three previous sTIL ring studies. We identify common challenges and evaluate impact of discrepancies on outcome estimates in early TNBC using a newly-developed prognostic tool. Discordant sTIL assessment is driven by heterogeneity in lymphocyte distribution. Additional factors include: technical slide-related issues; scoring outside the tumor boundary; tumors with minimal assessable stroma; including lymphocytes associated with other structures; and including other inflammatory cells. Small variations in sTIL assessment modestly alter risk estimation in early TNBC but have the potential to affect treatment selection if cutpoints are employed. Scoring and averaging multiple areas, as well as use of reference images, improve consistency of sTIL evaluation. Moreover, to assist in avoiding the pitfalls identified in this analysis, we developed an educational resource available at www.tilsinbreastcancer.org/pitfalls.
Indexed as
ImmunosurveillancePrognostic markers
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390
Registered trials
None linked
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.