Concordance, Correlation, and Clinical Impact of Standardized PD-L1 and TIL Scoring in SCCHN.

Background: The clinical significance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression has been thoroughly researched in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). To address the impact of intra- and intertumoral heterogeneity in these biomarkers, we explored the concordance of PD-L1 combined positive score (CPS) and stromal TILs in different paired tissue sample types, while evaluating their internal relationship and prognostic impact.

Methods: A total of 165 tissue blocks from 80 SCCHN patients were reviewed for TILs and PD-L1 CPS.