Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
Institute of Pathology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
Head Neck. 2021 Mar;43(3):778-787. doi: 10.1002/hed.26534. Epub 2020 Nov 6.
Primary platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (CRT) remains the treatment of choice for nonresectable squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC). Immune-checkpoint modulators are used as palliative therapy and studied in combination with definitive CRT. However, the immunological changes by CRT need yet to be understood.
A cohort consisting of 67 paired tissue biopsies (N = 134) of HNSCC patients before and after CRT was created. The expression of PD-1, PD-L1, and CD27 of tumor and immune cells by immunohistochemistry was evaluated.
PD-L1 expression on immune cells of non-responders was significantly lower before CRT (P = .008). CD27 was expressed only on immune cells and not on cancer cells. A significant lower CD27-expression score was observed following CRT (P = .019).
Conventional CRT changes the expression of CD27 in the tumor microenvironment. Whether this is due to a loss of expression or a reduction of CD27+ cells must be evaluated in further analyses.
铂类为基础的放化疗（CRT）仍是不可切除的头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HNSCC）的治疗选择。免疫检查点调节剂被用作姑息治疗，并与明确的 CRT 联合研究。然而，CRT 引起的免疫变化仍有待了解。
创建了一个由 67 对接受 CRT 前后的 HNSCC 患者组织活检组成的队列（N = 134）。通过免疫组化评估肿瘤和免疫细胞中 PD-1、PD-L1 和 CD27 的表达。
无应答者的免疫细胞上 PD-L1 的表达在 CRT 前明显较低（P =.008）。CD27 仅在免疫细胞上表达，而不在癌细胞上表达。CRT 后观察到 CD27 表达评分显著降低（P =.019）。
传统 CRT 改变了肿瘤微环境中 CD27 的表达。在进一步的分析中，必须评估这种变化是由于表达丧失还是 CD27+细胞减少所致。
