TY  - JOUR
A1  - Müller, Teresa
A1  - Demes, Melanie Christin
A1  - Lehn, Annette
A1  - Köllermann, Jens
A1  - Vallo, Stefan
A1  - Wild, Peter Johannes
A1  - Winkelmann, Anne Ria
T1  - The peri- and intratumoral immune cell infiltrate and PD-L1 status in invasive squamous cell carcinomas of the penis
T2  - Clinical and translational oncology
N2  - Introduction: Penile carcinomas are rare tumors throughout Europe. Therefore, little attention is drawn to this disease. That makes it important to study tumor-associated key metrics and relate these to known data on penile neoplasias. Materials and methods: A cohort of 60 well-defined penile invasive carcinomas with known human papillomavirus (HPV) infection status was investigated. Data on tumor type, grading and staging were recorded. Additionally, data on the peri- and intratumoral immune cell infiltrate in a semiquanititave manner applying an HE stain were assessed. Results: Our study showed a significant correlation of immune cell infiltrate and pT stage with overall survival. Therefore, in a subset of tumors, PD-L1 staining was applied. For tumor proportion score (TPS), 26 of 30 samples (87%) were scored >0%. For the immune cell score (IC), 28 of 30 samples (93%) were defined as >0% and for CPS, 29 of 30 samples (97%) scored >0. PD-L1 expression was not associated with overall survival. Conclusion: PD-L1 is expressed in penile carcinomas, providing a rationale for targeted therapy with checkpoint inhibitors. We were able to show that immune reaction appears to be prognostically relevant. These data enhance the need for further studies on the immune cell infiltrate in penile neoplasias and show that PD-L1 expression is existent in our cohort, which may be a potential target for checkpoint inhibitor therapy.
KW  - Penile carcinomas
KW  - Tumor microenvironment
KW  - PD-L1
KW  - Survival
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/62599
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-625998
SN  - 1699-3055
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. The work was funded by the Dr. Senckenberg Insitute of Pathology, Frankfurt am Main.
VL  - 23
IS  - 11
PB  - Springer Milan
CY  - Mailand
ER  -