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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.
Penile squamous cell carcinomas are rare tumor entities throughout Europe. Early lymphonodal spread urges for aggressive therapeutic approaches in advanced tumor stages. Therefore, understanding tumor biology and its microenvironment and correlation with known survival data is of substantial interest in order to establish treatment strategies adapted to the individual patient. Fifty-five therapy naïve squamous cell carcinomas, age range between 41 and 85 years with known clinicopathological data, were investigated with the use of tissue microarrays (TMA) regarding the tumor-associated immune cell infiltrate density (ICID). Slides were stained with antibodies against CD3, CD8 and CD20. An image analysis software was applied for evaluation. Data were correlated with clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival. There was a significant increase of ICID in squamous cell carcinomas of the penis in relation to tumor adjacent physiological tissue. Higher CD3-positive ICID was significantly associated with lower tumor stage in our cohort. The ICID was not associated with overall survival. Our data sharpens the view on tumor-associated immune cell infiltrate in penile squamous cell carcinomas with an unbiased digital and automated cell count. Further investigations on the immune cell infiltrate and its prognostic and possible therapeutic impact are needed.