Prognostic significance of CD4/CD8 ratio in patients with breast cancer

Increase of CD4/CD8 ratio has been observed in patients with various cancers. Our research was to assess the correlation between CD4/CD8 ratio and clinical variables, and determine whether CD4/CD8 ratio could be used as a prognostic factor in patients with breast cancer. The patients with breast cancer underwent surgery from January 2005 to June 2006. Prognostic parameters and survival rates were analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model. Eighty patients met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. CD4/CD8 ratio was associated with tumor depths (P<0.001), metastatic lymph node ratio (MLNR, P<0.001), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS, P<0.001) and progression-free survival (PFS, P<0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed the tumor depths, CD4/CD8 ratio and MLNR were independent predictors of DMFS (P<0.001; P= 0.003; P<0.001, respectively) and PFS (P<0.001; P= 0.002; P<0.001, respectively). Our data demonstrated that patients with an increased CD4/CD8 ratio (>= 1.7) had significantly poor DMFS and PFS (log-rank P<0.0001). An elevated ratio of CD4/CD8 was found to associate with tumor progression and poor survival in patients with breast cancer.