Prognostic significance of PD-L2 expression in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma-A comparison to the PD-L1 expression profile

Weber M, Wehrhan F, Baran C, Agaimy A, Büttner-Herold M, Kesting MR, Ries J (2019)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

DOI: 10.1002/cam4.1929

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite the observed association of increased PD-L1 expression in peripheral blood of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients with histomorphologic parameters, the role of the PD1 ligands-PD-L1 and PD-L2-is insufficiently understood. Aim of the study was to investigate whether the alterations of PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression in blood are associated with survival and could serve as immune monitoring parameter. Moreover, it should be analyzed if PD-L2 is differentially expressed in tissue and blood samples of OSCC patients compared to healthy controls and if there is an association of PD-L2 expression with histomorphologic and prognostic tumor parameters. METHODS: PD-L2 mRNA expression was analyzed in tumors and healthy oral mucosa specimens and in corresponding peripheral blood samples of 48 OSCC patients and 26 healthy controls using RT-qPCR. A cutoff point (COP) was determined and a chi-square test (χ2 test) was carried out. Survival analysis of PD-L2 and previously reported PD-L1 expression data was performed using Kaplan-Meier analysis (Log-rank test). RESULTS: PD-L2 expression in tissue samples was significantly (P < 0.001) higher in OSCC patients compared to healthy controls. A significant association of PD-L2 expression above the COP (positive) with malignancy was ascertained (P < 0.001). A significant (P = 0.01) association of previously reported PD-L1 expression rates in peripheral blood with survival could be shown. CONCLUSION: Peripheral blood PD-L1 expression might be a prognostic marker for OSCC patients and a possible parameter to monitor immune dysfunction in malign diseases. In the peripheral blood, PD-L1 might be more relevant for immune tolerance than PD-L2. Local PD-L2 expression in tissue samples might be useful as a diagnostic parameter for malignancy and could contribute to the immunosuppressive local microenvironment in OSCC.

Authors with CRIS profile

Manuel Weber Department of Oral and Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery Falk Wehrhan Department of Oral and Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery Christoph Baran Department of Oral and Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery Abbas Agaimy Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine Pathologie und Pathologische Anatomie Maike Büttner-Herold Medizinische Fakultät Marco Rainer Kesting Lehrstuhl für Zahnmedizin, insbesondere Mund-, Kiefer-, und Gesichtschirurgie

How to cite

APA:

Weber, M., Wehrhan, F., Baran, C., Agaimy, A., Büttner-Herold, M., Kesting, M.R., & Ries, J. (2019). Prognostic significance of PD-L2 expression in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma-A comparison to the PD-L1 expression profile. Cancer Medicine. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cam4.1929

MLA:

Weber, Manuel, et al. "Prognostic significance of PD-L2 expression in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma-A comparison to the PD-L1 expression profile." Cancer Medicine (2019).

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