High neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and decreased CD69 + NK cells represent a phenotype of high risk in early-stage breast cancer patients.

Purpose: Breast cancer (BC) is a highly heterogeneous disease presenting a broad range of clinical and molecular characteristics. In the past years, a growing body of evidence demonstrated that immune response plays a significant role in cancer outcome. However, immune prognostic markers are not completely validated in clinical practice in BC patients.

Materials and methods: With the aim to characterize immune features, several parameters were analyzed in peripheral blood at diagnosis of 85 nonmetastatic BC patients between April 2011 and July 2014.

Results: With a median follow-up of 38.6 months, peripheral blood analysis of BC patients (stages I, II, and III) showed that total lymphocyte and T lymphocyte counts were augmented in nonrelapsed patients. Also, a higher neutrophil-to-lymphocytes ratio was associated with prolonged disease-free survival. Natural killer cell receptor analysis revealed that early activation receptor CD69 was associated with a better outcome.

Conclusion: This preliminary evidence is in accordance with the concept of immune surveillance. We suggest an "immune phenotype" that provides relevant prognostic information in early-stage BC patients and which could be useful in the decision-making process.