{"id":"doi:10.1038/srep36956","kind":"article","title":"PD-L1 expression on immune cells, but not on tumor cells, is a favorable prognostic factor for head and neck cancer patients","authors":["Kim HR","Ha SJ","Hong MH","Heo SJ","Koh YW","Choi EC","Kim EK","Pyo KH","Jung I","Seo D","Choi J","Cho BC","Yoon SO"],"author_count":13,"year":2016,"published":"2016-11-14","venue":"Scientific reports","cited_by":215,"doi":"10.1038/srep36956","arxiv_id":null,"nct_id":null,"source_url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36956","archive_url":"https://space-kitty.com/papers/doi:10.1038/srep36956","updated":null,"pmid":"27841362","pmcid":"PMC5107906","openalex_id":null,"pdf_url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5107906/pdf","abstract":"To investigate the expression of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and immune checkpoints and their prognostic value for resected head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). PD-L1 expression on tumor cells (TC) and tumor-infiltrating immune cells (IC), abundance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), and expression of the immune checkpoints were investigated in 402 HNSCC patients. PD-L1 expression on TC and IC was categorized into four groups according to the percentage of PD-L1-positive cells. PD-L1 positivity was defined as ≥5% of cells based on immunohistochemistry. High PD-L1 expression on IC, but not TC, was an independent favorable prognostic factor for RFS and OS adjusted for age, gender, smoking, stage, and HPV. High frequencies of CD3 + or CD8 + TILs, Foxp3 + T reg s, and PD-1 + TILs were strongly associated with favorable prognosis. PD-L1 was exclusively expressed on either TC or IC. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated that IC3 expressed higher levels of the effector T cell markers than TC3, suggesting that PD-L1 expression is regulated via an adaptive IFNγ-mediated mechanism. High PD-L1 expression on IC, but not TC, and high abundance of PD-1 + T cells and Foxp3 + T reg s are favorable prognostic factors for resected HNSCC. This study highlights the importance of comprehensive assessment of both TC and IC.","abstract_license":"CC-BY (article license as recorded by Europe PMC; abstract reproduced unmodified apart from markup removal)","license":"CC-BY","is_open_access":true,"retracted":false,"peer_reviewed":null,"categories":[],"details":null,"provenance":"europepmc","attribution":"Abstract of \"PD-L1 expression on immune cells, but not on tumor cells, is a favorable prognostic factor for head and neck cancer patients\" by Kim HR, Ha SJ, Hong MH et al., https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36956, used under its Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY); markup removed, otherwise unmodified.","topics":[{"slug":"cancer-immunotherapy","name":"Cancer Immunotherapy","domain_slug":"medicine"}],"cited_in_dossiers":[]}