ArticleJournal for immunotherapy of cancer2025
Early assessment of IL8 and PD1+ Treg predicts response and guides treatment monitoring in cemiplimab-treated cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.
Article in Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma-A Systematic Review.Dermatopathology (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Novel Immunotherapeutic Approaches for Patients with Head and Neck Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Oncology research · 2026Review
- Identification of prognostic liquid biopsy biomarkers in patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma treated with cemiplimab.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Article
- Current and Emerging Insights into the Causes, Immunopathogenesis, and Treatment of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Cancers · 2025Review
- Application of transcriptomics techniques in skin cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Roles of immunosuppressive myeloid states in colorectal cancer checkpoint inhibitor non-response: single-cell and spatial proteomics, and reprogramming approaches.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
23 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeAnti-programmed cell death 1 (PD1) is the first-choice treatment in patients with advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), when curative options are unavailable. However, reliable biomarkers for patient selection are still lacking. EXPERIMENTAL
designIn this translational study, clinical annotations, tissue and liquid biopsies were acquired to investigate the association between sustained objective responses and transcriptional profiles, immune cell dynamics in tumor tissue and peripheral blood samples, as well as circulating cytokine levels.
resultsFirst, we investigated the baseline characteristics of the immune landscape of cSCC biopsies. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis showed upregulation of interleukin (IL)2/STAT5 pathways and downregulation of Interferon signatures in non-responder patients compared with responders. Next, we studied the early changes induced by cemiplimab in tissue biopsies. Notably, after only three weeks, cemiplimab treatment induced an increase in B cells and CD8+ T cells in responders, whereas their abundance decreased in non-responder patients. Moreover, analyzing differentially expressed genes modulated early during treatment, compared with baseline biopsies, we found that IL1β and IL8 exhibited early downregulation in responder patients' tumor specimens. We assessed whether changes in the local tumor microenvironment were mirrored in peripheral blood. Similar to tissue findings, no changes were observed in the whole T regulatory (Treg) population, although PD1+ Tregs, which were downregulated in responder patients (vs T0), showed a rebound enrichment in non-responders after three cycles of cemiplimab. Finally, IL8 mirrored the tissue results, unlike IL1β, with early (T1) and then sustained (T3) downregulation of its levels in responder patients, while increased in non-responders.
conclusionsTaken together, these findings shed light on the significance of early transcriptomic and immune cell modulation in predicting responses to cemiplimab therapy. Additionally, our data suggest that IL8 levels in peripheral blood offer promising avenues for personalized treatment selection and response assessment in patients with cSCC receiving cemiplimab, while PD1+Tregs can be followed longitudinally to monitor response to therapy.
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.