| This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes
(TILs) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), their associations with the clinicopathological
characteristics, and the association between their levels in patients with triple-negative breast cancer
(TNBC). PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, ProQuest, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases
were searched to obtain the relevant papers. Seven studies with 1152 patients were included in this
study. Like the level of TILs, there were no significant associations between PD-L1 expression and
tumor size, tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, histological grade, and Ki67 (All p-values 0.05).
Furthermore, there was no significant association between PD-L1 expression with overall survival
(OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). In assessment of TILs and survival relationship, the results
showed that a high level of TILs was associated with long-term OS (hazard ratios (HR) = 0.48, 95% CI:
0.30 to 0.77, p-value < 0.001) and DFS (HR = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.35 to 0.78, p-value < 0.001). The results
displayed that tumoral PD-L1 expression was strongly associated with high levels of TILs in TNBC
patients (OR = 8.34, 95% CI: 2.68 to 25.95, p-value < 0.001). In conclusion, the study has shown the
prognostic value of TILs and a strong association between tumoral PD-L1 overexpression with TILs
in TNBC patients. |