Tumoral and Stromal Pdl1 and Pdl2 Checkpoints Immunohistochemical Expression in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma, a Promising Field Of Study

Lubna O. Abdel-Salam; Hala El Hanbuli; Dalia Nabil Abdelhafez

doi:10.3889/oamjms.2022.9070

Authors

Lubna O. Abdel-Salam Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Hala El Hanbuli Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Fayoum University, Egypt Keman Fares, Fayoum Governorate, Cairo, Egypt https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4147-1397
Dalia Nabil Abdelhafez Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Fayoum University, Cairo, Egypt

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2022.9070

Keywords:

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, PDL1, PDL2

Abstract

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is world-widely considered as one of the most malignant tumors. Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), via its ligands PDL1 and PDL2 plays a critical role in cancer immunoediting. The ligands are expressed in many solid tumors and there is an emerging hope of using anti-PDL in cancer immunotherapy.

Material and methods:

This study included 40 patients with PDAC who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy. PDL1 and PDL2 pancreatic expression were evaluated in these patients using immunohistochemical staining and correlated their expression levels with each patient’s reported clinicopathological features.

Results:

There were significant relations between high tumoral PDL1 expression and the PDAC tumor histologic grade (p= 0.021) and the tumor status (T) (p= 0.022), while the stromal expression of PDL1 showed non-significant relation with any of the studied features. There were significant relations between high tumoral PDL2 expression and tumor stage (p=0.012), while the stromal expression of PDL2 showed significant relation with tumor status, lymph node status, tumor stage and the presence lympho-vascular invasion with P value equal 0.001, 0.009, 0.009, 0.045 respectively.

Conclusion:

This study showed that in PDAC patients high tumoral PDL1 and PDL2 expression was associated with some important prognostic factors, while only stromal PDL2 expression was significantly associated with most of the studied prognostic features emphasizing a role of both markers in the prognosis of this neoplasm.

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