PD-L1 Biomolecules Associated with Clinical Features in Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer

Dan Li; Liwen Ma; Jun Bao; Lei Cao; Wei Min

doi:10.2147/CCID.S383481

PD-L1 Biomolecules Associated with Clinical Features in Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer

Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2023 Jan 4:16:1-8. doi: 10.2147/CCID.S383481. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Dan Li¹, Liwen Ma¹, Jun Bao¹, Lei Cao², Wei Min³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, the Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
² Clinical Immunology Laboratory, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow University, Suzhou, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Dermatology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow University, Suzhou, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: Increasing evidence has indicated that several B7 family members play critical roles in the progress of many cancers. However, the clinical significance of the B7 family in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is still elusive. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential role of B7-H1 biomolecules (PD-L1) in regulating the tumorigenesis and progression of cSCC, the most common non-melanoma skin cancer.

Methods: We collected transcriptome data of cSCC patients from TCGA databases (n = 496) and subjected the transcription data to bioinformatical analysis. Differential expression of B7-H1 genes with a grade-dependent pattern was identified. We collected paraffin sections of skin squamous carcinoma and analyzed by immunohistochemical staining. We further examined the PD-L1 levels of CD14+ cells in peripheral blood of each cSCC patient and normal subjects by flow cytometry.

Results: It was found that higher expression of PD-L1 was associated with poor prognosis of cSCC patients and shorter overall survival. These observations were further verified in the clinical paraffin sections and in peripheral blood T cells.

Conclusion: Our study reveals that PD-L1 is a potential prognostic marker in clinical prognosis for cSCC patients and could be valuable for cSCC treatment.

Keywords: PD-L1; cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma; immunotherapy; tumour progression.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by grants from the Jiangsu National Science Foundation (BK2012170), science project from the traditional Chinese Medicine Bureau of Jiangsu Province (LZ1109).