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Background: The prognostic value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in curatively resected, but systemically untreated early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) was investigated., Materials and Methods: Patients with systemically untreated early TNBC between 1999 and 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. A low TIL level was defined as the presence of ≤10% stromal TILs Relapses were classified into locoregional and distant relapse. The primary endpoint was breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS)., Results: In 72 patients, the median TIL value was 10%, and low TIL status was found in 54.2%. Patients with pT1 and nodal-positive disease constituted 75% and 11.1%, respectively. With a median follow-up of 99 months, 26.4% patients experienced relapse; local in 63.2%, distant in 36.8%, and 9.7% died of disease progression. A low TIL level was significantly associated with distant relapse (p=0.013), and inferior 10-year BCSS, which was consistently observed in patients with T1a/b or N0 disease., Conclusion: A low TIL level seems to be an intrinsic prognostic factor in systemically untreated patients with early-stage TNBC, even in the T1a/bN0 subset., (Copyright© 2019, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.)