PD-L1 in Head & Neck Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The expression of programmed death-ligand 1 in Waldeyer's Ring and Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma: a large, retrospective, single institution site series investigating the relationship with the morphology, Human Papilloma Virus and the p16 protein.
IRAS ID
232228
Contact name
Chit Cheng Yeoh
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
The most frequent type of the tumour of the inner lining of the oral cavity (OC) and Waldeyer's ring (WR) is squamous cell cancer (SCC). WR cancer is quite different to cancer in the OC. For example, it affects younger people, and has better outcomes for patients. It also spreads to the lymph nodes in the neck more often, is often Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) positive, has proteins (p16) present, and has an increased number of immune cells inside the tumour. In addition, WR cancer frequently shows different types of cell shapes and structure to OC cancer.
The cancer cells in the head and neck interact with the immune system to enable them to continue to exist and grow, by preventing the immune system from detecting and attacking them. A protein on the surface of the cells, called “Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)” is a receptor, which stops the immune cells from being able to destroy the tumour.
Currently there are drugs available, which can help the body’s immune system to fight the tumour cells which have PD-L1 on them, for other types of cancers. However, we do not know if these treatments may work in head and neck cancers. Firstly, we need to explore, if this may be possible by looking at the PD-L1 receptors on tissue samples in the laboratory. We will test samples of tissue from head and neck tumours in the OC and WR to see whether the PD-L1 receptors are also present, how much is present, and what type they are. This would indicate whether already available treatments may also help head and neck cancer patients.REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
17/NS/0103
Date of REC Opinion
23 Oct 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion