A high frequency of PD-L1/PD-L2-involving genetic aberrations was observed in EBV-positive lymphomas [33 (22%) of 148 cases], including extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL, 23%), aggressive NK-cell leukemia (57%), systemic EBV-positive T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder (17%) as well as EBV-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL, 19%) and peripheral T-cell lymphoma-not otherwise specified (15%).
EZH2 inhibitors reversed the upregulation of trimethylation of H3K27, and synergistically inhibited diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and other solid tumors growth in vitro and in vivo.
However, the observed prognostic significance of PD-1/PD-L1 expression in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with the standard of care has been inconsistent and even contradictory.
Expression of PD-L1 tended to be associated with non-germinal center-type of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (63% vs. 33% in GC-type, p = .14) and latent membrane protein-1+ PTLD (76% vs. 44% in LPM1-, p = .09).
Immune evasion-related extranodal large B-cell lymphoma: A report of six patients with neoplastic PD-L1-positive extranodal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
Both EBV-harboring and PD-L1 expression on tumor cells, but not CD5, were associated with worse overall survival (OS) in iDLBCL patients receiving rituximab-containing chemotherapy (P = 0.0354, P = 0.0092, and P = 0.1097, respectively).
In the subgroup analysis according to histology types, pooled results demonstrated that an increased PD-L1 expression was an unfavorable prognostic factor for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (HR=1.92, 95% CI: 1.06-3.48, <i>P</i>=0.03) but not for natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (HR=2.41, 95% CI: 0.47-12.22, <i>P</i>=0.29).
Although the results in other lymphoid malignancies have not been so striking, blockade of the PD-1/PD-L1 axis has led to meaningful responses in other lymphoma types such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma or several T-cell lymphomas.
We investigated the potential signaling molecules that regulate EZH2 overexpression in aggressive B-cell lymphomas and found that 80% of cases of EZH2-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma show high p-ERK1/2 expression (average ~57% tumor cell positivity).
We found that macrophages in lymphoma tissues of almost all cases of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), follicular lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma expressed PD-L1.