Table 1.
Distribution of TILs according to patient and tumour characteristics (n = 477)
| Variable | TIL low (< 10%) n (%) |
TIL intermediate (10–49%) n (%) |
TIL high (≥ 50%) n (%) |
P valuea |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | 0.02 | |||
| < 40 | 41 (44) | 32 (34) | 21 (22) | |
| ≥ 40 | 207 (54) | 125 (33) | 51 (13) | |
| Nodal status | 0.34 | |||
| 0 | 65 (47) | 42 (31) | 30 (22) | |
| 1–3 | 137 (59) | 66 (28) | 30 (13) | |
| ≥ 4 | 46 (44) | 47 (45) | 12 (11) | |
| Missing | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Tumour size (mm) | 0.06 | |||
| ≤ 20 | 97 (57) | 52 (31) | 20 (12) | |
| > 20 | 151 (49) | 104 (34) | 52 (17) | |
| Missing | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Histological grade (NHG) | < 0.001 | |||
| 1 | 44 (86) | 7 (14) | 0 | |
| 2 | 135 (70) | 52 (27) | 5 (3) | |
| 3 | 56 (27) | 91 (43) | 64 (30) | |
| Missing | 13 | 7 | 3 | |
| ER | < 0.001 | |||
| Negative | 45 (29) | 63 (40) | 48 (31) | |
| Positive | 203 (63) | 94 (29) | 24 (8) | |
| PR | < 0.001 | |||
| Negative | 41 (27) | 63 (41) | 50 (33) | |
| Positive | 206 (64) | 93 (29) | 21 (7) | |
| Missing | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| HER2 | 0.001 | |||
| Negative | 205 (56) | 109 (30) | 50 (14) | |
| Positive | 22 (33) | 28 (42) | 16 (24) | |
| Missing | 21 | 20 | 6 | |
| LVI | 0.87 | |||
| Absent | 140 (54) | 76 (30) | 42 (16) | |
| Present | 108 (50) | 81 (37) | 28 (13) | |
| Missing | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| Ki67 (%) | < 0.001 | |||
| ≤ 10 | 126 (71) | 40 (23) | 12 (7) | |
| 11–25 | 60 (56) | 33 (31) | 14 (13) | |
| ≥ 26 | 22 (20) | 53 (48) | 36 (32) | |
| Missing | 40 | 31 | 10 | |
| Histopathological type | < 0.001 | |||
| Ductal/NST | 200 (52) | 134 (35) | 48 (13) | |
| Lobular | 29 (81) | 7 (19) | 0 | |
| Medullary | 0 | 3 (13) | 20 (87) | |
| Other | 9 (75) | 2 (17) | 1 (8) | |
| Missing | 10 | 11 | 3 | |
| Subtype | < 0.001 | |||
| ER+/HER2− | 176 (69) | 65 (25) | 16 (6) | |
| HER2+ | 22 (33) | 28 (42) | 16 (24) | |
| TNBC | 20 (21) | 42 (44) | 33 (35) | |
| Missing | 30 | 22 | 7 | |
| Total | 248 (52) | 157 (33) | 72 (15) | |
a Chi2 test for trend, except for the non-ordinal variables histopathological type and subtype, when conventional chi2 test was used
Abbreviations: ER oestrogen receptor, HER2 human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, LVI lymphovascular invasion, NST no special type, NHG Nottingham histological grade, PR progesterone receptor, TILs tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes, TNBC triple-negative breast cancer