[The clinical significance of the expression of costimulatory molecule PD-L1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the expression of ligand 1 of programmed death-1 in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), the relationship between their expression and the clinicopathological features.


METHODS
Immunohistochemistry was performed to assess the expression of PD-L1 in 59 cases of NPC tissues and 10 cases of normal nasopharyngeal tissue. RT-PCR was used to investigate the mRNA expression of PD-L1 gene in 30 NPC samples and 10 cases of normal nasopharyngeal tissues.


RESULTS
In case of tissues of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, the positive expression rate of PD-L1 protein and PD-L1mRNA were 67.8% (40/59) and 66.6% (20/30) respectively, while there were no PD-L1 detectable in normal nasopharyngeal tissues. The expression of PD-L1 was significantly correlated with clinical TNM stage and lymphatic metastasis (P <0.05). However, no significant correlation was founded between the expression of PD-L1 and age and sex (P >0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
PD-L1 is overexpressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, PD-L1 maybe play a certain role in carcinogenesis and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and turn into a new target of immunotherapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Zhang
Feng
F
Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China. lhkzhangfeng@163.com
Liu
Zheng
Z
Cui
Yonghua
Y
Wang
Guohua
G
Cao
Ping
P
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000378:metabolism*; D017209:Apoptosis; D060890:B7-H1 Antigen; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D019139:Tumor Escape
D015703:Antigens, CD; D060890:B7-H1 Antigen; C423236:CD274 protein, human