Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) loss is frequently observed in NSCLC and associated with both phosphoinositide 3-kinase activation and tumoral immunosuppression. PTEN immunohistochemistry is a valuable readout, but lacks standardized staining protocol and cutoff value.
After an external quality assessment using SP218, 138G6 and 6H2.1 anti-PTEN antibodies, scored on webbook and tissue microarray, the European Thoracic Oncology Platform cohort samples (n = 2245 NSCLC patients, 8980 tissue microarray cores) were stained with SP218. All cores were H-scored by pathologists and by computerized pixel-based intensity measurements calibrated by pathologists.
All three antibodies differentiated six PTEN+ versus six PTEN- cases on external quality assessment. For 138G6 and SP218, high sensitivity and specificity was found for all H-score threshold values including prospectively defined 0, calculated 8 (pathologists), and calculated 5 (computer). High concordance among pathologists in setting computer-based intensities and between pathologists and computer in H-scoring was observed. Because of over-integration of the human eye, pixel-based computer H-scores were overall 54% lower. For all cutoff values, PTEN- was associated with smoking history, squamous cell histology, and higher tumor stage (p < 0.001). In adenocarcinomas, PTEN- was associated with poor survival.
Calibration of immunoreactivity intensities by pathologists following computerized H-score measurements has the potential to improve reproducibility and homogeneity of biomarker detection regarding epitope validation in multicenter studies.