Immunohistochemical assessment of the diagnostic utility of PD-L1: a preliminary analysis of anti-PD-L1 antibody (SP142) for lymphoproliferative diseases with tumour and non-malignant Hodgkin-Reed-Sternberg (HRS)-like cells

Abstract

Aims: The programmed death 1 (PD1)/PD1 ligand (PD-L1) axis plays an important role in tumour cells escape from immune control. PD-L1 immunohistochemistry is a useful predictor of immunotherapy response, but is still not used widely in the diagnostic setting. Here we describe results using PD-L1 immunohistochemistry during routine diagnostics in lymphoma.

Methods and results: Ninety-one lymphoproliferative disease cases sharing tumour and non-malignant Hodgkin-Reed-Sternberg (HRS)-like cells with and without Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) association were investigated by immunohistochemistry for PD-L1 (clone SP142). PD-L1 expression was present in more than 5% of tumour or non-malignant HRS-like cells in 100% of EBV⁺ classical (C) Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) (n = 10) and EBV-negative nodular sclerosis CHL (n = 8); 40% of EBV⁺ diffuse large B cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (DLBCL-NOS) (n = 20); and 4% of nodal peripheral T cell lymphoma of follicular helper T cell type (PTCL-TFH) (n = 22). In contrast, nodular lymphocyte-predominant HL (n = 4), lymphocyte-rich CHL (n = 6), EBV⁺ hyperplasia (n = 8), plasmablastic lymphoma (n = 3) and anaplastic lymphoma kinase-negative anaplastic large cell lymphoma (n = 5) seldom exhibited PD-L1 in their large cells. Assessing PD-L1 positivity in tumour and non-malignant large cells was helpful in differentiating between CHL versus nodal PTCL-TFH (P < 0.0001) or EBV⁺ DLBCL-NOS (P = 0.0052) and between EBV⁺ DLBCL-NOS versus nodal PTCL-TFH (P = 0.0052), with PD-L1 expression indicating the first diagnosis in each of those sets.

Conclusion: Immunohistochemical evaluation of PD-L1 expression in tumour and non-malignant HRS-like large cells may be useful for assessing either immune escape or immunodeficiency in their pathogenesis.

Keywords: Epstein-Barr virus; Hodgkin-Reed-Sternberg-like cells; PD-L1; immune escape; immunodeficiency.