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01-09-2016 | Original Article

B7-H4 expression indicates poor prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma

Authors: Lei Wu, Wei-Wei Deng, Guang-Tao Yu, Liang Mao, Lin-Lin Bu, Si-Rui Ma, Bing Liu, Wen-Feng Zhang, Zhi-Jun Sun

Published in: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy | Issue 9/2016

Abstract

Checkpoint blockade therapy utilizing monoclonal antibodies to reactivate T cells and recover their antitumor activity makes an epoch in cancer immunotherapy. The role of B7-H4, a novel negative immune checkpoint, in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has still not been elucidated. In this study, tissue samples from human OSCC, which contains 165 primary OSCC, 48 oral epithelial dysplasia and 43 normal oral mucosa specimens, and Tgfbr1/Pten 2cKO mice OSCC model were stained with B7-H4 antibody to analyze the correlations between B7-H4 expression and clinicopathological characteristics. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to compare the survival of patients with high B7-H4 expression and patients with low B7-H4 expression. We found B7-H4 is highly expressed in human OSCC tissue, and the B7-H4 expression level was associated with the clinicopathological parameters containing pathological grade and lymph node status. Moreover, we confirmed that B7-H4 was overexpressed in Tgfbr1/Pten 2cKO mice OSCC model. Our data also indicated that patients with high B7-H4 expression had poor overall survival compared with those with low B7-H4 expression. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that B7-H4 was positively associated with PD-L1, CD11b, CD33, PI3Kα p110, and p-S6 (S235/236). Taken together, these findings suggest B7-H4 is a potential target in the treatment of OSCC.

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Title: B7-H4 expression indicates poor prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Lei Wu
Wei-Wei Deng
Guang-Tao Yu
Liang Mao
Lin-Lin Bu
Si-Rui Ma
Bing Liu
Wen-Feng Zhang
Zhi-Jun Sun
Publication date: 01-09-2016
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy / Issue 9/2016
Print ISSN: 0340-7004
Electronic ISSN: 1432-0851
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-016-1867-9

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