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Published on: April 22, 2019
Immune checkpoint expression in HNSCC patients before and after definitive chemoradiotherapy
Johannes Doescher1, Peter Minkenberg1, Simon Laban1
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
Background:
Primary platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (CRT) remains the treatment of choice for nonresectable squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC). Immune-checkpoint modulators are used as palliative therapy and studied in combination with definitive CRT. However, the immunological changes by CRT need yet to be understood.
Methods:
A cohort consisting of 67 paired tissue biopsies (N = 134) of HNSCC patients before and after CRT was created. The expression of PD-1, PD-L1, and CD27 of tumor and immune cells by immunohistochemistry was evaluated.
Results:
PD-L1 expression on immune cells of non-responders was significantly lower before CRT (P = .008). CD27 was expressed only on immune cells and not on cancer cells. A significant lower CD27-expression score was observed following CRT (P = .019).
Conclusions:
Conventional CRT changes the expression of CD27 in the tumor microenvironment. Whether this is due to a loss of expression or a reduction of CD27+ cells must be evaluated in further analyses.
