Solène-Florence, Kammerer-Jacquet, Laurence, Crouzet, Angélique, Brunot, Julien, Dagher, Adélaïde, Pladys, Julien, Edeline, Brigitte, Laguerre, Benoit, Peyronnet, Romain, Mathieu, Grégory, Verhoest, Jean-Jacques, Patard, Alexandra, Lespagnol, Jean, Mosser, Marc, Denis, Yosra, Messai, Sophie, Gad-Lapiteau, Salem, Chouaib, Marc-Antoine, Belaud-Rotureau, Karim, Bensalah, Nathalie, Rioux-Leclercq, Service de Pathologie [Rennes] = Pathology [Rennes], CHU Pontchaillou [Rennes], Institut de Génétique et Développement de Rennes (IGDR), Université de Rennes (UR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Structure Fédérative de Recherche en Biologie et Santé de Rennes ( Biosit : Biologie - Santé - Innovation Technologique ), Département d'oncologie médicale [Rennes], CRLCC Eugène Marquis (CRLCC), Service de Cytogénétique et de Biologie Cellulaire, Université de Rennes (UR)-Hôpital Pontchaillou-CHU Pontchaillou [Rennes], École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique [EHESP] (EHESP), Service d'urologie [Rennes] = Urology [Rennes], Hôpital Pontchaillou-CHU Pontchaillou [Rennes], Hôpital Bicêtre, Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) (AP-HP)-Hôpital Bicêtre, Laboratoire de Biochimie, Centre hospitalier universitaire de Nantes (CHU Nantes), Institut Gustave Roussy (IGR), Immunologie intégrative des tumeurs (UMR 1186), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut Gustave Roussy (IGR)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Ligue Contre le Cancer, CORECT, Rennes Hospital, French Institute of Cancer (INCa), Jonchère, Laurent, Structure Fédérative de Recherche en Biologie et Santé de Rennes ( Biosit : Biologie - Santé - Innovation Technologique )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES), Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Hôpital Pontchaillou-CHU Pontchaillou [Rennes], Institut Gustave Roussy (IGR)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11), and Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Structure Fédérative de Recherche en Biologie et Santé de Rennes ( Biosit : Biologie - Santé - Innovation Technologique )
International audience; Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is an aggressive tumor that is characterized in most cases by inactivation of the tumor suppressor gene VHL. The VHL/HIF/VEGF pathway thus plays a major role in angiogenesis and is currently targeted by anti-angiogenic therapy. The emergence of resistance is leading to the use of targeted immunotherapy against immune checkpoint PD1/PDL1 that restores antitumor immune response. The correlation between VHL status and PD-L1 expression has been little investigated. In this study, we retrospectively reviewed 98 consecutive cases of ccRCC and correlated PD-L1 expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) with clinical data (up to 10-year follow-up), pathological criteria, VEGF, PAR-3, CAIX and PD-1 expressions by IHC and complete VHL status (deletion, mutation and promoter hypermethylation). PD-L1 expression was observed in 69 ccRCC (70.4%) and the corresponding patients had a worse prognosis, with a median specific survival of 52 months (p = 0.03). PD-L1 expression was significantly associated with poor prognostic factors such as a higher ISUP nucleolar grade (p = 0.01), metastases at diagnosis (p = 0.01), a sarcomatoid component (p = 0.04), overexpression of VEGF (p = 0.006), and cytoplasmic PAR-3 expression (p = 0.01). PD-L1 expression was also associated with dense PD-1 expression (p = 0.007) and with ccRCC with 0 or 1 alteration(s) (non-inactivated VHL tumors; p = 0.007) that remained significant after multivariate analysis (p = 0.004 and p = 0.024, respectively). Interestingly, all wild-type VHL tumors (no VHL gene alteration, 11.2%) expressed PD-L1. In this study, we found PD-L1 expression to be associated with noninactivated VHL tumors and in particular wild-type VHL ccRCC, which may benefit from therapies inhibiting PD-L1/PD-1.