B7-H3 and ICAM-1 are potentially therapeutic targets for thyroid carcinoma

Although most differentiated thyroid carcinoma has a clinically favorable prognosis, some of specific types of thyroid cancer (such as anaplastic thyroid carcinoma and advanced papillary thyroid carcinoma) show fatal outcomes and require novel treatments.

Immunotherapy is a promising avenue for the treatment of advanced thyroid carcinoma.

B7-H3 (B7 homolog 3 protein) and ICAM-1 (intercellular adhesion molecule 1), as two important immune checkpoints (ICPs), is becoming hopeful target spots for immunotherapy.

A growing amount of evidence has suggested that B7-H3 and ICAM-1 are upregulated in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

However, their expression level in specific types of thyroid cancer remains largely unclear.

In the present study, we explored the expression level of B7-H3 and ICAM-1 in different types of thyroid carcinoma.

In the groups of the TCGA cohort, both B7-H3 and ICAM-1 mRNA were highly expressed in thyroid carcinoma.

Furthermore, the patients with Stage2, 61-80y, Follicular thyroid papillary carcinoma and N0 had lower B7-H3 and ICAM-1 mRNA expression.

In the groups of our cohort, PTCs and ATCs showed frequently moderate to strong expression of B7-H3 and ICAM-1 protein expression.

The significant relevance of B7-H3 staining score with ICAM-1 staining score was observed in TCGA database and our cohort, which might open avenues for the combination therapy in advanced thyroid cancer.