Count on it.

Feeling bad about your predictive abilities after your NCAA Championship picks? This one's for you. The Swedish SweBCG91RT trial was originally designed to determine the benefit of adjuvant radiation after breast conservation for patients with T1-2 tumors—if you can’t guess, there was one. In this study, banked tissue from the trial was used to determine the extent of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). The majority of patients (71%) had low (<10%) levels of TILs. Having >10% TILs, though, was independently associated with a significant reduction in the risk of local recurrence. Yes, the whole TIL yes/no concept is a fairly crude look at a fairly complex interaction. But in combination with other clinicopathologic factors, this could be one more measure to help you predict the absolute benefit of adjuvant whole breast radiation when considering omission. TBL: Early-stage breast tumors with >10% TILs have a reduced risk of recurrence after lumpectomy independent of adjuvant radiation. | Kovacs, J Clin Oncol 2019