ArticleBMC cancer2023
Characterisation of tumour-immune phenotypes and PD-L1 positivity in squamous bladder cancer.
Article in BMC cancer, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Real-world effectiveness of avelumab, pembrolizumab, and enfortumab vedotin in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma with squamous differentiation (ARON-2EV).Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2026Article
- Immune checkpoint inhibitors in bladder cancer: from mechanistic insights to emerging combination frontlines.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2026Review
- Multi-omic profiling defines three distinct molecular subtypes of urothelial carcinoma with implications for precision therapy.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Article
- Characterization of Lymphocyte Subsets in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Colorectal Cancer.Journal of gastrointestinal cancer · 2026Article
- Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 4 (TRPM4) is associated with an immuno-stimulatory TME and better prognosis in BLCA.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Causal relationship between immune cells and bladder cancer: A bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.Medicine · 2025Article
- A high stroma-tumor ratio is associated with an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and a poor prognosis in bladder cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- PD-L1International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Dual role of GRHL3 in bladder carcinogenesis depending on histological subtypes.Molecular oncology · 2024Article
- PD-L1 Expression and Tumour Microenvironment Patterns in Resected Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- [Efficacy of combined treatment with pirfenidone and PD-L1 inhibitor in mice bearing ectopic bladder cancer xenograft].Nan fang yi ke da xue xue bao = Journal of Southern Medical University · 2024Article
- HLA Class I Expression Is Associated with DNA Damage and Immune Cell Infiltration into Dysplastic and Neoplastic Lesions in Ulcerative Colitis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsImmune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy has become a viable treatment strategy in bladder cancer. However, treatment responses vary, and improved biomarkers are needed. Crucially, the characteristics of immune cells remain understudied especially in squamous differentiated bladder cancer (sq-BLCA). Here, we quantitatively analysed the tumour-immune phenotypes of sq-BLCA and correlated them with PD-L1 expression and FGFR3 mutation status.
methodsTissue microarrays (TMA) of n = 68 non-schistosomiasis associated pure squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and n = 46 mixed urothelial carcinoma with squamous differentiation (MIX) were subjected to immunohistochemistry for CD3, CD4, CD8, CD56, CD68, CD79A, CD163, Ki67, perforin and chloroacetate esterase staining. Quantitative image evaluation was performed via digital image analysis.
resultsImmune infiltration was generally higher in stroma than in tumour regions. B-cells (CD79A) were almost exclusively found in stromal areas (sTILs), T-lymphocytes and macrophages were also present in tumour cell areas (iTILs), while natural killer cells (CD56) were nearly missing in any area. Tumour-immune phenotype distribution differed depending on the immune cell subset, however, hot tumour-immune phenotypes (high density of immune cells in tumour areas) were frequently found for CD8 + T-cells (33%), especially perforin + lymphocytes (52.2%), and CD68 + macrophages (37.6%). Perforin + CD8 lymphocytes predicted improved overall survival in sq-BLCA while high PD-L1 expression (CPS ≥ 10) was significantly associated with higher CD3 + , CD8 + and CD163 + immune cell density and high Ki67 (density) of tumour cells. Furthermore, PD-L1 expression was positively associated with CD3 + /CD4 + , CD3 + /CD8 + and CD68 + /CD163 + hot tumour-immune phenotypes. FGFR3 mutation status was inversely associated with CD8 + , perforin + and CD79A + lymphocyte density.
conclusionsComputer-based image analysis is an efficient tool to analyse immune topographies in squamous bladder cancer. Hot tumour-immune phenotypes with strong PD-L1 expression might pose a promising subgroup for clinically successful ICI therapy in squamous bladder cancer and warrant further investigation.
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