Comprehensive Immunohistochemical Study of Programmed Cell Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1)

Programmed cell death 1/programmed cell death ligand (PD-1/PD-Ls) axis is crucial for the modulation of immune responses and self-tolerance. Also, aberrant PD-L1 expression on the tumor cells or tumor-associated inflammatory cells accelerates immune evasion of tumor cells. In the past decade, PD-1/PD-L immune checkpoint inhibitors were introduced to cancer treatment trials and, in some cases, showed significant anticancer effects. PD-L1 immunohistochemical staining is considered a potential predictor of clinical response to PD-1/PD-L immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. However, immunohistochemical data on PD-L1 expression in different types of cancer especially rare entities remain incomplete. In this study, PD-L1 expression was immunohistochemically analyzed in 5536 tumors including germ cell, epithelial, mesenchymal, melanocytic/neuroectodermal, and lymphohematopoietic tumors, as well as in a set of human normal tissues including a fetus. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed with E1L3N rabbit monoclonal antibody and Leica Bond Max automation using multitumor blocks containing up to 70 tumor samples. PD-L1 was constitutively and strongly expressed in placental trophoblasts as well as choriocarcinomas and trophoblastic components of germ cell tumors. Also, the neoplastic cells of classical Hodgkin lymphoma, anaplastic large cell lymphoma, schwannoma, thymoma, and squamous cell carcinoma of various sites frequently expressed PD-L1. In gastrointestinal adenocarcinomas, PD-L1-expression was associated with EBER positivity and mismatch-repair deficiency. In addition, PD-L1 was variably expressed in non-neoplastic macrophages and dendritic cells. PD-L1 immunohistochemistry may have some role in the immunophenotypic differential diagnosis of tumors and pinpointing potential candidates for anti-PD-1/PD-L immune checkpoint therapy.