Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016;48(6):352-356.
doi: 10.1007/s10353-016-0447-8. Epub 2016 Oct 7.

Programmed death-ligand 1 expression in rectal cancer

G Jomrich  1 , G R Silberhumer  1 , B Marian  2 , A Beer  3 , L Müllauer  3
Affiliations

Programmed death-ligand 1 expression in rectal cancer

G Jomrich et al. Eur Surg. 2016.

Abstract

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most common cause of death worldwide. Approximately 30 % of all CRC occurs in the rectum. Improvements in survival rates were achieved thanks to multimodal therapy, combining surgery and chemoradiation. Nevertheless, the prognosis of patients suffering from rectal cancer (RC) remains poor. Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligand programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) regulate tumor immune response. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of PD-L1 in RC pre- and post-neoadjuvant therapy and evaluate PD-L1 as a biomarker and potential target for therapy.

Methods: In all, 29 patients with RC treated at the Medical University Vienna who received preoperative chemoradiation were retrospectively enrolled in this study. Expression of PD-L1 was investigated by immunohistochemistry with two different anti-PD-L1 antibodies.

Results: No PD-L1 expression on cancer cells could be observed in all 29 cases in the specimens before chemoradiation as well as in the surgical specimens after neoadjuvant therapy. In one of the two staining methods performed, five (17.24 %) post-chemoradiation cases showed faint lymphohistiocytic staining.

Conclusion: No expression of PD-L1 in RC cells before and after chemoradiation was found in our collective of 29 patients. Further investigations to evaluate the role of PD-L1 as a potential therapeutic target in RC are urgently needed.

Keywords: Neoadjuvant chemoradiation; Programmed death ligand 1; Rectal cancer; Total mesorectal excision; Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestG.Jomrich, G.R.Silberhumer, B.Marian, A.Beer, L.Müllauer declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Total mesorectal excision specimen. b * Rectal cancer after neoadjuvant chemoradiation showing areas of fibrosis indicating good response
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
a–c Representative hematoxylin–eosin (H&E)-stained rectal cancer (RC) specimens after neoadjuvant chemoradiation (NCR) (magnification ×400). d, e Corresponding immunohistochemical PD-L1 stainings, showing PD-L1-positive immune cells in the tumor stroma of RC after NCR (magnification ×400). f RC showing no expression of PD-L1 in immunohistochemical PD-L1 staining after NCR (magnification ×400)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C, Rebelo M, et al. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012. Int J Cancer. 2015;136(5):E359–E386. doi: 10.1002/ijc.29210. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sauer R, Becker H, Hohenberger W, Rodel C, Wittekind C, Fietkau R, et al. Preoperative versus postoperative chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2004;351(17):1731–1740. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa040694. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Derbel O, Wang Q, Desseigne F, Rivoire M, Meeus P, Peyrat P, et al. Impact of KRAS, BRAF and PI3KCA mutations in rectal carcinomas treated with neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy and surgery. BMC Cancer. 2013;13:200. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-13-200. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Swaika A, Hammond WA, Joseph RW. Current state of anti-PD-L1 and anti-PD-1 agents in cancer therapy. Mol Immunol. 2015;67(2 Pt A):4–17. doi: 10.1016/j.molimm.2015.02.009. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gao Q, Wang XY, Qiu SJ, Yamato I, Sho M, Nakajima Y, et al. Overexpression of PD-L1 significantly associates with tumor aggressiveness and postoperative recurrence in human hepatocellular carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2009;15(3):971–979. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-08-1608. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources