ReviewNPJ breast cancer2021
The tale of TILs in breast cancer: A report from The International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group.
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Review in NPJ breast cancer, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 187 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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187citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
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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.
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Who cites it
187 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and Predictive Markers of Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Continuous versus Standard Palbociclib Treatment and Molecular Profiling of Solid Tissues and Liquid Biopsies in the CCTG MA.38 Trial in Advanced Breast Cancer.Cancer research communications · 2025Trial
- Continuous replenishment of the dysfunctional CD8 T cell axis is associated with response to chemoimmunotherapy in advanced breast cancer.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Trial
- Hormone therapy enhances anti-PD1 efficacy in premenopausal estrogen receptor-positive and HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Trial
- Adjuvant nivolumab, capecitabine or the combination in patients with residual triple-negative breast cancer: the OXEL randomized phase II study.Nature communications · 2024Trial
- Combining histological grade, TILs, and the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway to identify immunogenic tumors and de-escalate radiotherapy in early breast cancer: a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2023Trial
- Longitudinal evaluation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte scoring using automated region of interest registration in breast cancer.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2026Article
- The MHCII Immune Activation Score predicts risk of recurrence and benefit of taxanes in Basallike and HER2-enriched breast cancer.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- AI-assisted image analysis of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes as a prognostic marker in chemotherapy-naïve luminal breast cancer.NPJ breast cancer · 2026Article
- Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) as a predictive marker of pathological complete response (pCR) in a diverse patient population with early triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) treated with neoadjuvant real-world KEYNOTE-522 regimen.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2026Article
- Effects of breast cancer risk factors on the tumor microenvironment: a morphological deep-learning analysis of three prospective cohorts.NPJ breast cancer · 2026Article
- Article
- Association of baseline tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and cell-cycle regulation markers on prognosis and mortality in patients with advanced breast cancer according to tumor characteristics and treatment type: an observational study.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2026Observational
- Spatially resolved single-cell landscape of tumor immunotypes reveals the central role of interferon signaling and plasmacytoid dendritic cells in triple-negative breast cancer.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2026Article
- Loss of ARID1A expression is associated with worse survival and reduced tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026Article
- CNet-Cox for interpretable network biomarker discovery and survival risk scoring in precise breast cancer prognosis.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Molecular Subtypes; Immune Escape; Limitations of Current Immunotherapy; and the BTLA/HVEM/CD160 Axis as an Emerging Target.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Review
- QuTILs: Open-Source Image-Based Infiltrating Immune Cell Detection for Research Application.Research square · 2026Article
- Review
- The contribution of rare germline variants to the immune landscape of breast cancer.Genome medicine · 2026Article
127 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
75 authors.
Khalid El BairiDepartment of Medical Oncology, Mohammed VI University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Mohammed Ist University, Oujda, Morocco. k.elbairi@ump.ac.ma.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8414-4145
Harry R HaynesDepartment of Cellular Pathology, Great Western Hospital, Swindon, UK.
Elizabeth BlackleyDivision of Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia.
Susan FinebergDepartment of Pathology, Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
Jeffrey ShearChief Information Officer, WISS & Company, LLP and President J. Shear Consulting, LLC-Ardsley, Ardsley, NY, USA.
Sophia TurnerICPV, Independent Cancer Patient Voice, London, UK.
Juliana Ribeiro de FreitasDepartment of Pathology and Legal Medicine, Medical School of the Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4978-7273
Daniel SurDepartment of Medical Oncology, University of Medicine "I. Hatieganu", Cluj Napoca, Romania.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0926-4614
Luis Claudio AmendolaBrazilian Society of Oncology, Salvador, Brazil.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6404-450X
Masoumeh GharibFaculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Amine KallalaHopital Charles Nicolle, Tunis, Tunisia.
Indu ArunDepartment of Histopathology, Tata Medical Center, Kolkata, India.
Farid Azmoudeh-ArdalanDepartment of Pathology, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4701-0532
Luciana FujimotoPathology and Legal Medicine, Amazon Federal University, Belém, Brazil.
Luz F SuaDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Fundacion Valle del Lili, and Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad ICESI, Cali, Colombia.
Shi-Wei LiuSichuan Cancer Hospital, Chengdu, China.
Huang-Chun LienDepartment of Pathology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Pawan KirtaniDepartment of Histopathology, Manipal Hospitals Dwarka, New Delhi, India.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2343-7016
Marcelo BalancinDepartment of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Hicham El AttarApc labs - Annasr Pathology Center, El Jadida, Morocco.
Prerna GuleriaArmy Hospital Research and Referral, Delhi Cantt, New Delhi, India.
Wenxian YangAginome Scientific Pte Ltd, Xiamen, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5349-9680
Emad ShashBreast Cancer Comprehensive Center, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
I-Chun ChenDepartment of Oncology, National Taiwan University Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Veronica BautistaDepartment of Pathology, Breast Cancer Center FUCAM, Mexico City, Mexico.
Jose Fernando Do Prado MouraCentro de Pesquisas Clinicas do IMIP, Recife, Brazil.
Bernardo L RapoportThe Medical Oncology Centre of Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Carlos CastanedaDepartment of Medical Oncology, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas, Lima, 15038, Peru.
Eunice SpenglerDepartmento de Patologia, Hospital Universitario Austral, Pilar, Argentina.
Gabriela Acosta-HaabDepartment of Pathology, Hospital de Oncología Maria Curie, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Isabel FrahmDepartment of Pathology, Sanatorio Mater Dei, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Joselyn SanchezDepartment of Research, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas, Lima, 15038, Peru.
Miluska CastilloDepartment of Research, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas, Lima, 15038, Peru.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0111-3176
Najat BouchmaaInstitute of Biological Sciences, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), 43 150, Ben-Guerir, Morocco.
Reena R Md ZinDepartment of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, UKM Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Ruohong ShuiDepartment of Pathology, Fudan University Cancer Center, Shanghai, China.
Timothy OnyumaKenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya.
Wentao YangDepartment of Pathology, Fudan University Cancer Center, Shanghai, China.
Zaheed HusainPraava Health, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Karen Willard-GalloMolecular Immunology Unit, Institut Jules Bordet, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
An CoosemansLaboratory of Tumour Immunology and Immunotherapy, Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Edith A PerezDepartment of Hematology/Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA.
Elena ProvenzanoDepartment of Histopathology, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3345-3965
Paula Gonzalez EricssonBreast Cancer Program, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
Eduardo RichardetClinical Oncology Unit, Instituto Oncológico Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina.
Ravi MehrotraIndia Cancer Research Consortium-ICMR, Department of Health Research, New Delhi, India.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9453-1408
Sandra SaranconeDepartment of Pathology, Laboratorio QUANTUM, Rosario, Argentina.
Anna EhingerDepartment of Clinical Genetics and Pathology, Skåne University Hospital, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9225-7396
David L RimmDepartment of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5820-4397
John M S BartlettDiagnostic Development, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Canada.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0347-3888
Giuseppe VialeDepartment of Pathology, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia IRCCS, and University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Carsten DenkertInstitute of Pathology, Universitätsklinikum Gießen und Marburg GmbH, Standort Marburg and Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2249-0982
Akira I HidaDepartment of Pathology, Matsuyama Shimin Hospital, Matsuyama, Japan.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4486-8819
Christos SotiriouDepartment of Medical Oncology, Institut Jules Bordet, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5745-9977
Sibylle LoiblGerman Breast Group, Neu-Isenburg, Germany.
Stephen M HewittLaboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8283-1788
Sunil BadveDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8861-9980
William Fraser SymmansDepartment of Pathology, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1526-184X
Rim S KimNational Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP)/NRG Oncology, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Giancarlo PruneriDepartment of Pathology, RCCS Fondazione Istituto Nazionale Tumori and University of Milan, School of Medicine, Milan, Italy.
Shom GoelDivision of Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8329-9084
Prudence A FrancisSir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7207-9286
Gloria InurrigarroDepartment of pathology Sanatorio Mater Dei, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Rin YamaguchiDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Kurume University Medical Center, Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan.
Hernan Garcia-RivelloServicio de Anatomía Patológica, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Hugo HorlingsDivision of Pathology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4782-8828
Said AfqirDepartment of Medical Oncology, Mohammed VI University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Mohammed Ist University, Oujda, Morocco.
Roberto SalgadoDivision of Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1110-3801
Sylvia AdamsPerlmutter Cancer Center, New York University Medical School, New York, NY, USA.
Marleen KokDivisions of Medical Oncology, Molecular Oncology & Immunology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Maria Vittoria DieciDepartment of Surgery, Oncology and Gastroenterology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Stefan MichielsService de Biostatistique et d'Epidémiologie, Gustave Roussy, Oncostat U1018, Inserm, University Paris-Saclay, labeled Ligue Contre le Cancer, Villejuif, France.
Sandra DemariaDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4426-0499
Sherene LoiDivision of Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6137-9171
International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group
Funding
X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHYP30CA008748 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES · PI Hongbiao Carl Lekaye · 1985 to 2026
$347.4MYale Clinical and Translational Science Award (U Component)UL1TR001863 · NCATS · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI John H. Krystal, LUCILA OHNO-MACHADO · 2016 to 2026
$102.9MTissue and Pathology CoreP50CA168504 · NCI · DANA-FARBER CANCER INST · PI Nabihah Tayob · 2013 to 2026
$30.1MCancer Research UK 24869Cancer Research UK 28990Medical Research Council MC_PC_19041NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR001863NCI NIH HHS P30 CA008748NCI NIH HHS P50 CA168504
Abstract
The advent of immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in modern oncology has significantly improved survival in several cancer settings. A subgroup of women with breast cancer (BC) has immunogenic infiltration of lymphocytes with expression of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). These patients may potentially benefit from ICI targeting the programmed death 1 (PD-1)/PD-L1 signaling axis. The use of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) as predictive and prognostic biomarkers has been under intense examination. Emerging data suggest that TILs are associated with response to both cytotoxic treatments and immunotherapy, particularly for patients with triple-negative BC. In this review from The International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group, we discuss (a) the biological understanding of TILs, (b) their analytical and clinical validity and efforts toward the clinical utility in BC, and (c) the current status of PD-L1 and TIL testing across different continents, including experiences from low-to-middle-income countries, incorporating also the view of a patient advocate. This information will help set the stage for future approaches to optimize the understanding and clinical utilization of TIL analysis in patients with BC.
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