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Infiltration and dysfunction of immune cells have been documented in many types of cancers. We previously reported that plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) within primary breast tumors correlate with an unfavorable prognosis for patients. The role of pDC in cancer remains unclear but they have been shown to mediate immune tolerance in other pathophysiologic contexts. We postulated that pDC may interfere with antitumor immune response and favor tolerance in breast cancer. The present study was designed to decipher the mechanistic basis for the deleterious impact of pDC on the clinical outcome. Using fresh human breast tumor biopsies (N = 60 patients), we observed through multiparametric flow cytometry increased tumor-associated (TA) pDC (TApDC) rates in aggressive breast tumors, i.e., those with high mitotic index and the so-called triple-negative breast tumors (TNBT). Furthermore, TApDC …