ArticleJournal of cancer research and clinical oncology2021
The prognostic significance of PD-L1 expression on tumor and immune cells in Merkel cell carcinoma.
Article in Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness and Safety of Treatments for Early-Stage Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized and Non-Randomized Studies.Cancer medicine · 2025Pooled it
- The impact of merkel cell polyomavirus positivity on prognosis of merkel cell carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Pooled it
- Efficacy of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Oncoviruses in Solid Tumors.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2026Review
- Low Intratumoral CD200 Protein Expression in Primary Merkel Cell Carcinoma Is a Strong Predictor for Disease Relapse.Cancers · 2025Article
- What is the predominant etiological factor for Merkel cell carcinoma in Turkey: viral infection or sun exposure?BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Review
- Clinical significance of the expression of FOXP3 and TIGIT in Merkel cell carcinoma.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Small-molecule inhibitors, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and more: FDA-approved novel therapeutic drugs for solid tumors from 1991 to 2021.Journal of hematology & oncology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe aim of this study was to evaluate prognostic factors in patients with non-metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), with a particular focus on immunological markers such as TILs subtyping (CD3, CD8, CD68, FoxP3, PD-L1 and PD-1) and MCPyV.
methodsPatients treated for a non-metastatic MCC with oncologic surgical resection followed or not by adjuvant radiotherapy between 01/2007 and 12/2018 were analyzed. Local and regional control (LC, RC), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Clinical variables analyzed included age, gender, performance status, comorbidity, tumor size, location and presentation type, extension, oncologic resection and adjuvant radiotherapy. Pathological variables analyzed included type of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, CD3, CD8, CD68, PD-L1 expression on immune cells and tumors cells, PD-1, FoxP3 and MCPyV, assessed with immunohistochemistry (IHC).
results77 patients were included. After a median follow-up of 18 months (range 0.2-144), the 1-year LC, RC, DMFS and OS were 83%, 60%, 82% and 75%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, a percentage of PD-L1 expression by immune cells ≥ 1% was significantly correlated with improvement of RC (p = 0.012), DMFS (p = 0.003) and OS (p = 0.006). Adjuvant radiotherapy significantly improved DMFS (p = 0.021) and OS (0.041) rates. There was a correlation between the presence of MCPyV + and the expression of PD-L1 on IC (p = 0.05) and TC (p = 0.03).
conclusionPD-L1 expression by immune and tumor cells in non-metastatic MCC seems to significantly improve outcome in patients who did not received PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. Prospective studies are needed to confirm our hypothesis.
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