Evaluation of Histopathological and Prognostic Significance of Programmed Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1) Expression of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Basal Cell Carcinoma

Document Type : Original articles

Authors

Pathology department, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Egypt

Abstract

Basal cell carcinoma and Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma are the most common malignancies in humans. Five-year survival rates of these tumors are considerably high, and classical treatment methods, such as surgery and radiotherapy, are generally sufficient. However, additional systemic treatment may be required for high-risk, locally advanced, and metastatic BCC and CSCC. PD-L1 activation plays an important role in the tumor’s avoidance of immune surveillance. PD-L1 expression has been studied in different tumor types. However, data on PD-L1 expression in BCC and CSCC are limited. The aim of this study is to evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of PD-L1 in CSCC and BCC cases and detect its relationship with other clinicopathological parameters as a prognostic factor. A total of 47 formalin fixed paraffin embedded skin biopsies of patients with CSCC (19) and BCC (28) were collected and studied immunohistochemically for PD-L1. All biopsies were scored for the PD-L1 expression in tumor cells and TILs. PD-L1expression was positive in 14 (73.7%) of the included CSCC cases, while 5 (26.3%) were negative. Score 0 was seen in 5 cases (26.3%), Score +1 was seen in 6 cases (31.6%), score +2 was seen in 8 cases (42.1%). PD-L1 score in tumor cells showing significant correlation with tumor size, PD-L1 expression in TILs and PD-L1 scores in TILs.  According to 28 BCC cases, 27 (96.4%) showed negative PD-L1 expression in tumor cells while only one case (3.6%) has positive expression, however according to PD-L1 expression in TILs 11(39.3%) cases were negative but 17(60.7%) cases showed positive expression.

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