ArticleCancer immunology research2013
PD-L1 expression in the Merkel cell carcinoma microenvironment: association with inflammation, Merkel cell polyomavirus and overall survival.
Article in Cancer immunology research, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 201 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
201 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 375 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in patients with Merkel Cell Carcinoma: a systematic review and Meta-analysis.BMC cancer · 2024Pooled it
- PD-L1 and the Clinical Outcomes of Ovarian Cancer: Meta-Analysis and Bioinformatical Analysis.Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2022Pooled it
- Prognostic Significance of PD-L1 Expression In Patients With Primary Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2021Pooled it
- Viral status, immune microenvironment and immunological response to checkpoint inhibitors in hepatocellular carcinoma.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2020Pooled it
- Systematic literature review of efficacy, safety and tolerability outcomes of chemotherapy regimens in patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma.Future oncology (London, England) · 2017Pooled it
- The prevalence and clinicopathological features of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression: a pooled analysis of literatures.Oncotarget · 2016Pooled it
- Nivolumab With or Without Ipilimumab in Patients With Recurrent or Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Nonrandomized, Open-Label, International, Multicenter Phase I/II Study.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2025Trial
- Biomarkers of pembrolizumab efficacy in advanced anal squamous cell carcinoma: analysis of a phase II clinical trial and a cohort of long-term responders.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2024Trial
- Three-year survival, correlates and salvage therapies in patients receiving first-line pembrolizumab for advanced Merkel cell carcinoma.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2021Trial
- Neoadjuvant Nivolumab for Patients With Resectable Merkel Cell Carcinoma in the CheckMate 358 Trial.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2020Trial
- The Role of Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 in the Treatment of Skin Cancer.BioDrugs : clinical immunotherapeutics, biopharmaceuticals and gene therapy · 2020Trial
- Phase Ib/II Clinical Trial of Pembrolizumab With Bevacizumab for Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: BTCRC-GU14-003.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2020Trial
- Prognostic value of the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio in enteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.Anti-cancer drugs · 2020Trial
- Durable Tumor Regression and Overall Survival in Patients With Advanced Merkel Cell Carcinoma Receiving Pembrolizumab as First-Line Therapy.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2019Trial
- Intratumoral G100, a TLR4 Agonist, Induces Antitumor Immune Responses and Tumor Regression in Patients with Merkel Cell Carcinoma.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2019Trial
- Efficacy and Safety of First-line Avelumab Treatment in Patients With Stage IV Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Preplanned Interim Analysis of a Clinical Trial.JAMA oncology · 2018Trial
- Avelumab in patients with chemotherapy-refractory metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma: a multicentre, single-group, open-label, phase 2 trial.The Lancet. Oncology · 2016Trial
- PD-1 Blockade with Pembrolizumab in Advanced Merkel-Cell Carcinoma.The New England journal of medicine · 2016Trial
- Retifanlimab Versus Avelumab for the Treatment of Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparison Analysis.Advances in therapy · 2026Article
- PD-L1 in Merkel Cell Carcinoma: From Tumor Microenvironment to Pathological Interpretation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
141 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a lethal, virus-associated cancer that lacks effective therapies for advanced disease. Agents blocking the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway have demonstrated objective, durable tumor regressions in patients with advanced solid malignancies and efficacy has been linked to PD-L1 expression in the tumor microenvironment. To investigate whether MCC might be a target for PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, we examined MCC PD-L1 expression, its association with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV), and overall survival. Sixty-seven MCC specimens from 49 patients were assessed with immunohistochemistry for PD-L1 expression by tumor cells and TILs, and immune infiltrates were characterized phenotypically. Tumor cell and TIL PD-L1 expression were observed in 49% and 55% of patients, respectively. In specimens with PD-L1(+) tumor cells, 97% (28/29) demonstrated a geographic association with immune infiltrates. Among specimens with moderate-severe TIL intensities, 100% (29/29) demonstrated PD-L1 expression by tumor cells. Significant associations were also observed between the presence of MCPyV DNA, a brisk inflammatory response, and tumor cell PD-L1 expression: MCPyV(-) tumor cells were uniformly PD-L1(-). Taken together, these findings suggest that a local tumor-specific and potentially MCPyV-specific immune response drives tumor PD-L1 expression, similar to previous observations in melanoma and head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. In multivariate analyses, PD-L1(-) MCCs were independently associated with worse overall survival (hazard ratio 3.12; 95% CI, 1.28-7.61; p=0.012). These findings suggest that an endogenous immune response promotes PD-L1 expression in the MCC microenvironment when MCPyV is present, and provide a rationale for investigating therapies blocking PD-1/PD-L1 for patients with MCC.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.