Immunohistochemical Expression of PD-L1 in Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Its Association with Risk of Metastasis.
- Author:
Moonhyung YOU
1
;
Donghoon SHIN
;
Jongsoo CHOI
;
Youngkyung BAE
;
Jihmin LEE
Author Information
1. Department of Dermatology, Yeungnam University College of Medicine, Daegu, Korea. dhshin@med.yu.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma;
Metastasis;
PD-1;
PD-L1
- MeSH:
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell*;
Cell Death;
Dermatology;
Epithelial Cells*;
Humans;
Korea;
Lymphatic Metastasis;
Neoplasm Metastasis*;
Skin Neoplasms
- From:Korean Journal of Dermatology
2018;56(7):415-420
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) plays a major role in the immune responses of a variety of cancers. Recently, several studies revealed that PD-L1 is differently expressed in some cases of non-melanoma skin cancer. The expression of PD-L1 in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma has not yet been described in Korea. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of PD-L1 in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and its association with variable clinicopathological factors. METHODS: We performed immunohistochemical staining of 52 cutaneous cell carcinoma cases, including 28 high-risk cases and 24 low-risk cases. Cases were selected from patients who had visited the department of dermatology of our hospital from 2001 to 2017. The expression patterns were assessed using the H-score. Cases demonstrating at least 1+ of PD-L1 in more than 1% of tumor cells were considered positive. RESULTS: PD-L1 expression of tumor cells was 19.2% (10/52) for all cases, 0.0% (0/24) for the low-risk group, and 35.7% (10/28) for the high-risk group. PD-L1 positive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma cases showed a significantly higher proportion of large tumors and tumors with deep invasion and a higher lymphatic metastasis rate when compared to PD-L1 negative cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma cases. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma exhibits PD-L1 expression in 19.2% of cases. PD-L1 positive tumors are associated with high-risk cases of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, which may help guide the choice of therapeutic strategy.
