Dysgerminoma germ cell tumors exhibit high expression of PD-L1 and are associated with high levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and a good patient prognosis

Background Ovarian germ cell tumors (OVGCTs) account for 28% of all diagnosed ovarian cancers, and malignant germ cell tumors specifically account for approximately 13% of diagnosed ovarian cancers in Saudi Arabia. Although most germ cell tumor patients have a high survival rate, patients who experience tumor recurrence have a poor prognosis and present with more aggressive and chemoresistant tumors. The use of immunotherapeutic agents such as PD-L1/PD-1 inhibitors for OVGCTs remains very limited because few studies have described the immunological characteristics of these tumors. This study is the first to investigate PD-L1 expression in ovarian germ cell tumors and explore the role of PD-L1 expression in tumor microenvironment cells and genetic alterations. Methods A total of 34 ovarian germ cell tumors were collected from pathology archives. The collected tumor tissues included ten dysgerminomas, five yolk sac tumors, five immature teratomas, and one mature teratoma, and the remaining samples were mixed germ cell tumors. The tumors were analyzed using immunohistochemical analysis to determine PD-L1 expression, immune cell infiltration and cancer stem cell populations and their correlation with clinical outcome. Furthermore, the genetic alterations in different subtypes of germ cell tumors were correlated with PD-L1 expression and clinical outcome. Datasets for testicular germ cells (TGCTs) were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and analyzed using cBioPortal (cbioportal.org) and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). Results Compared with yolk sac tumors, dysgerminomas highly express PD-L1 and are associated with high levels of infiltrating lymphocytes and stem cell markers. In addition, compared with PD-L1-negative yolk sac tissue, dysgerminomas/seminomas with high PD-L1 expression are associated with more genetic alterations and a better prognosis. Conclusion Our findings will contribute to the knowledge about the potential benefits of ovarian cancer immunotherapy in specific subsets of germ cell tumor patients and the risk factors for resistance mediated by tumor microenvironment cells.