Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Feb;27(2):699-705.
doi: 10.1007/s12094-024-03613-2. Epub 2024 Aug 1.

Correlation of PD-L1 expression with different clinico-pathological and immunohistochemical features of ovarian surface epithelial tumors

Asem Shalaby  1   2 , Ola Shalaby  3 , Hazem Abdullah  4 , Mohamed Rachid Boulassel  5   6 , Mohammad Arafa  3   7
Affiliations

Correlation of PD-L1 expression with different clinico-pathological and immunohistochemical features of ovarian surface epithelial tumors

Asem Shalaby et al. Clin Transl Oncol. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Primary carcinoma of the ovary (OCs) are responsible for a significant number of deaths related to cancer, and have the highest rate of death related to cancers of the female reproductive organs. Programmed cell death 1 (PD1) protein, acts as an immune checkpoint, and has an important role in the down-regulation of the immune system by preventing the activation of T-cells, which will weaken the autoimmunity and increases self-tolerance. This study aimed at the evaluation of the immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of PD-L1 in various primary surface ovarian epithelial tumours and to test its correlation with different clinicopathological parameters together with the expression of a panel of P53, ER and PR.

Methods: A set of 102 cases of primary ovarian surface epithelial neoplasms (benign, borderline and malignant) were collected to construct Tissue Microarray (TMA) using 3 tissue cores from each case. IHC for PD-L1, p53, PR and ER was performed. The expression of PD-L1 was evaluated in relation to some clinicopathological parameters and to the expression patterns of other markers.

Results: Expression of PD-L1 was detected in about 51% (n = 36) of malignant tumours. The malignant group significantly showed PD-L1 positivity compared to borderline and benign groups. The malignant tumours significantly showed PD-L1 and total p53 positivity in comparison to borderline group. Also, malignant tumours significantly showed higher combined positivity of PD-L1 and either PR or ER compared to borderline and benign lesions. No significant correlation was appreciated between PD-L1 expression and with any of the studied clinicopathological parameters.

Conclusions: This study showed a significant PD-L1 expression in malignant primary surface epithelial tumours. Construction of a panel of IHC markers, including PD-L1, could have a potential value to define patients those would benefit from the addition of immunotherapy to the treatment plan.

Keywords: Carcinoma; ER; P53; PD-L1; PR.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Ethical approval: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Mansoura University [Institutional Review Board (IRB) Ref. MDP.19.10.31 dated October 2019] and in agreement with Declaration of Helsinki of 1964 and its later amendments. There were no required written consents with a waiver from the Institutional Review Board.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Photomicrographs showing examples of PD-L1 immunohistochemical expression as cytoplasmic staining in different entities of surface epithelial ovarian tumours; borderline serous tumour (A), low-grade serous carcinoma (B), high-grade serous carcinoma (C) and mucinous carcinoma (D)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

  • Chromosomal instability: a key driver in glioma pathogenesis and progression.
    Mazzoleni A, Awuah WA, Sanker V, Bharadwaj HR, Aderinto N, Tan JK, Huang HYR, Poornaselvan J, Shah MH, Atallah O, Tawfik A, Elmanzalawi MEAE, Ghozlan SH, Abdul-Rahman T, Moyondafoluwa JA, Alexiou A, Papadakis M. Mazzoleni A, et al. Eur J Med Res. 2024 Sep 4;29(1):451. doi: 10.1186/s40001-024-02043-8. Eur J Med Res. 2024. PMID: 39227895 Free PMC article. Review.

References

    1. Cho KR, Shih IM. Ovarian cancer. Annu Rev Pathol. 2009;4:287–313. 10.1146/annurev.pathol.4.110807.092246. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cheung AN, Ellenson LK, Gillks CB, et al. editors. WHO Classification of Female Genital Tumors. 5th ed. Volume 70 WHO Classification of Tumors Editorial Board, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC); Lyon, France: 2020.
    1. Dumitru A, Dobrica EC, Croitoru A, Cretoiu SM, Gaspar BS. Focus on PD-1/PD-L1 as a therapeutic target in ovarian cancer. Int J Mol Sci. 2022;23(20):12067. 10.3390/ijms232012067. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kahraman DS, Diniz G, Sayhan S, et al. The prognostic significance of pdl1 and foxp3 expressions in tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment of ovarian epithelial tumors. Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2018;11(8):3884–90. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Que Y, Xiao W, Guan YX, et al. PD-L1 expression is associated with FOXP3+ regulatory T-cell infiltration of soft tissue sarcoma and poor patient prognosis. J Cancer. 2017;8(11):2018–25. - PMC - PubMed