Significant correlation of TLR4 expression with the clinicopathological features of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast

Toll-like receptor 4 belongs to the family of pattern recognition receptors and is therefore an important part of innate immunity. Since the last decade, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have gained much interest in cancer research due to their role in tumor progression. However, there is scarcity of data evaluating TLR4 expression in different cell populations of tumor in relation to clinicopathological parameters of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Therefore, we investigated TLR4 expression in 50 primary invasive ductal carcinoma and 17 lymph node sections through immunohistochemistry. Significant association of TLR4 expression with local metastasis and absence of necrosis was observed. The incidence of lymph node metastasis was higher in patients with high TLR4 expression in the tumor cells. We also observed an interesting inverse relationship of TLR4 with necrosis. In endothelial and lymphocytic population constituting breast tumors, a significant association of TLR4 expression was seen with the tumor grade. Therefore, we conclude that TLR4 expression is of biological interest both as a prognostic marker as well as a possible therapeutic target.