Expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer Patients Treated With Multimodal Therapy: Results From a Retrospective Study.
Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is rare and a highly fatal malignancy. The role of programmed death-1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) as prognostic and/or predictive markers in ATC is unknown.



Multimodal therapy offers the best chance at tumor control. The objective of this study was to detect potential associations of PD-1/PD-L1 axis variables with outcome data in ATC.



Retrospective study of a uniformly treated cohort.



Single institution retrospective cohort study.



Sixteen patients who received intensity-modulated radiation therapy (15 had preceding surgery) were studied.



Patients treated with multimodal therapy were followed and assessed for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS).



All samples demonstrated PD-1 expression in inflammatory cells whereas tumor cells were primarily negative. PD-L1 was expressed on ATC tumor cells in most samples and showed mainly membranous staining. High PD-1 expression (>40% staining) in inflammatory cells was associated with worse overall survival (OS; hazard ratio, 3.36; 95% confidence interval, 1.00 to 12.96; P < 0.05) and trended toward worse PFS, whereas high PD-L1 expression in tumor cells (>33% staining) trended toward worse PFS and OS.



PD-1/PD-L1 pathway proteins are highly expressed in ATC tumor samples and appear to represent predictive markers of PFS and OS in multimodality-treated ATC patients.
Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Ashish V
AV
Chintakuntlawar
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Kandelaria M
KM
Rumilla
Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Carin Y
CY
Smith
Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Sarah M
SM
Jenkins
Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Robert L
RL
Foote
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Jan L
JL
Kasperbauer
Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.|Division of Endocrinology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
John C
JC
Morris
Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.|Division of Endocrinology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Mabel
M
Ryder
Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.|Division of Hematology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Samer
S
Alsidawi
Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Crystal
C
Hilger
Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
Keith C
KC
Bible
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D060890:B7-H1 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D061026:Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor / Q000378:metabolism*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D050397:Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D065646:Thyroid Carcinoma, Anaplastic / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000628:therapy; D013965:Thyroidectomy
D060890:B7-H1 Antigen; C423236:CD274 protein, human; C105992:PDCD1 protein, human; D061026:Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor