Expression of PD-L1 and BRCA1 in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Patients and Relationship with Clinicopathological Characteristics.

OBJECTIVE: To study the expression of programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) and breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1) in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients and analyze their relationship with clinicopathological characteristics.

METHODS: 76 TNBC tissues were collected as the research object, while 60 adjacent tissues were used as controls. All patients underwent surgical treatment, and the expression of PD-L1 and BRCA1 in cancer tissues and adjacent tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry. At the same time, the relationship between PD-L1, BRCA1, and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with TNBC (including patient age, menopausal status, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, histological grade, Ki-67 expression, and p53 expression) were analyzed by univariate and logistic multivariate analysis.

RESULTS: The positive expression rate of PD-L1 in the TNBC group was 64.47%, which was higher than the control group by 41.67%. The positive expression rate of BRCA1 was 27.63%, which was lower than the control group by 48.33%. PD-L1 expression has no significant relationship with age, menopausal status, and p53 expression in TNBC patients. TNBC patients with tumors ≥2 cm, histological grade III, lymph node metastasis, and Ki-67 expression ≥20% had higher PD-L1 positive expression rates. The tumor size, Ki-67 expression, and PD-L1 expression of TNBC patients have independent effects. The expression of BRCA1 has no significant relationship with menopausal status, tumor size, Ki-67 expression, etc. TNBC patients with age <45 years, histological grade I or II, no lymph node metastasis, and high p53 expression positive rate had higher BRCA1 positive expression rate. The age of TNBC patients, p53 expression, and BRCA1 expression have independent effects.

CONCLUSION: In TNBC cancer tissues, there is a high expression of PD-L1 and low expression of BRAC1. The tumor size, Ki-67 expression, and PD-L1 expression of TNBC patients have independent effects. The age of TNBC patients, p53 expression, and BRCA1 expression have independent effects.