Immunohistochemistry Predictive Markers Report

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Title: Immunohistochemistry Predictive Markers (PD-L1) In Therapeutic Decisions.

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Oncologists for decades now have used predictive markers to clinically select suitable therapies
for treating malignancies. For many years, steroids receptor has been the preferred assessment of
these markers. However, it has been recently been overtaken by Immunohistochemistry.
Immunohistochemistry is a technique that uses antibodies to test the presence of specific
antigens in tissues. The antibodies are laced with a colorant or enzyme which is activated when
antibodies bind with antigens or markers (Hirsch, McElhinny, & Stanforth, 2017). Its major use
is to check for the presence of cancer and differentiate between different cancer types. There are
numerous IHC stains, among them is the PD-L1. PD-L1 is a protein expressed in some normal
cells but found in greater than normal amounts in cancer cells. PD-L1 binds onto a protein
known as PD-1 inhibiting T cells from destroying it. This serves the purpose of preventing T cell
vicious immune response destroying host tissues. However, in the case of cancer, it prevents T
cells from destroying cancer cells allowing an unchecked growth of tumors. Cancer drugs known
immune checkpoint inhibitors is bind to PD-L1 antibodies inhibiting them from binding to PD-1
antigen. This removes regulation of the immune allowing T cells to destroy cancer cells (Le,
Uram, Wang, & Med, 2015).