Association of Programmed death ligand-1 (PDL1) Expression in Endometrial Carcinoma across the Spectrum of Tumor Stage and Patients Survival and Other Clinicopathological Features

Abstract

ndometrial cancer (EC) is the fourth most common malignancy in women and the most common gynecologic cancer in developed countries, with an overall incidence of 7% and 63,230 estimated new cases. EC cells have the ability to activate programmed death-1 (PD-1) signaling, by overexpressing PD-L1 and PDL-2, which can bind PD-1 receptors, expressed on tumor-infiltrating CD4 and CD8 T cells and inactivates them in the tumor microenvironment. EC cells overexpress PD-1 (present in 75% of cases) and PD-L1 (in 25%–100% of cases) the most among gynecological cancer. For this reason, targeting this pathway seems a promising strategy to enhance antitumor immune response. As concluded by Kim and colleagues, PD-L1 expression in endometrial cancer cells correlates with postmenopausal status, high histological grade (grade 3), deep myometrial invasion (≥1/2), lymphovascular invasion, adjuvant therapy, and MSI status. This retrospective study was conducted at Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital and early cancer detection unit in the period between December 2019 to January 2021 (COVID-19 is pandemic).