Summary
Due to immune impairment and lymphocyte enrichment of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy is regarded as a potential treatment option. However, tumor heterogeneity, differences in the immune conditions of patients, and the interrelation between tumor cells and stromal cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME) could affect the therapeutic efficacy of immune checkpoint blockades. Therefore, to maximize the benefit of blockade PD-1/PD-L1 axis, to find an efficient predictor (the possible clinical parameters or biological factors) before treatment are of great importance. In this review, we discuss the advantages of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy for OSCC patients and find three respects that are currently available in predicting curative effect. Firstly, OSCC with high PD-L1 expression evaluating by immunohistochemistry (high tumor proportion score (TPS) and combined positive score (CPS)) are considered to be suitable for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy. Secondly, gene-level predictive biomarkers including high metastatic mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR) signature or enrichment of interferon-γ and PD1 signaling pathway is expected to be favorable factors. Besides, PET/CT parameters (SUVmax, MTV, TLG) are proved to be correlated with PD-L1 expression, and some newly developed immunoPET probes are enlarging the application of PET/CT in predicting therapeutic efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors.
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Data availability
The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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We thank the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (14380942) for financial support.
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Antian Gao contributed to data acquisition, and drafted this manuscript. Xiao Pan contributed to data curation. Zitong Lin and Xudong Yang contributed to guidance of manuscript writing, and founding acquisition. All authors gave final approval and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
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Gao, A., Pan, X., Yang, X. et al. Predictive factors in the treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma using PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. Invest New Drugs 39, 1132–1138 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-021-01082-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-021-01082-w