{"entity":{"id":"basaloid-squamous-cell-carcinoma-lung","kind":"cancer","name":"Basaloid squamous cell carcinoma of the lung","aka":["Basaloid squamous cell lung carcinoma","Basaloid carcinoma of the lung","Basaloid squamous cell carcinoma","Basaloid variant of squamous cell carcinoma"],"tldr":"Basaloid squamous cell carcinoma is a variant of squamous lung cancer made of small, dark, tightly packed cells that grow in nests; it has a worse outlook than ordinary squamous cell carcinoma. It is treated the same way, and its high PD-L1 levels suggest immunotherapy should work, though no trial has tested it separately.","summary":"The WHO classification lists basaloid carcinoma as a form of squamous cell carcinoma (a pure form and a mixed variant with more than 50 percent basaloid pattern), having moved it out of large cell carcinoma in 2015 once immunohistochemistry showed squamous lineage in every case (Travis 2015; Pelosi 2014). Copy-number and expression profiling of 93 squamous cell carcinomas, 42 of them basaloid, showed that pure basaloid tumours have a specific expression profile, with cell-cycle, transcription, chromatin and splicing genes up and squamous differentiation genes down, from which a two-gene (SOX4, IVL) immunohistochemistry predictor separated basaloid from non-basaloid tumours with 94 percent accuracy (Brambilla 2014). In 56 resected basaloid carcinomas PD-L1 expression correlated with CD8-positive and PD-1-positive infiltrating T cells, with fair to poor agreement between some antibody clones (Modern Pathology 2016).\n\nHow it differs from its parent: the source series describes its prognosis as dismal compared with other squamous cell carcinoma, and its molecular profile is distinct; but no therapy has been shown to work better in it (Brambilla 2014).\n\nHow common: no incidence figure is published; it is a minority of squamous cell carcinomas.\n\nTreatment: as squamous cell carcinoma of the lung by stage, including chemotherapy with pembrolizumab in metastatic disease; there is no trial in the variant.","asOf":"2026-09-24","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squamous-cell_carcinoma_of_the_lung","links":[{"label":"Travis 2015, JTO: the 2015 WHO classification of lung tumours","url":"https://doi.org/10.1097/jto.0000000000000630"},{"label":"Pelosi 2014, Virchows Archiv: large cell carcinoma of the lung reclassified by immunohistochemistry and molecular biology","url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-013-1501-6"},{"label":"Brambilla 2014, Clin Cancer Res: lung squamous cell carcinomas with basaloid histology are a specific molecular entity","url":"https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-14-0459"},{"label":"Modern Pathology 2016: PD-L1 expression in 56 basaloid squamous cell lung carcinomas","url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/modpathol.2016.149"}],"tags":["subtype-page","wave4","lung"],"related":["nsclc","lung-squamous-cell-carcinoma","large-cell-lung-carcinoma","lymphoepithelial-carcinoma-lung"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["pembrolizumab"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"group":"lung","burden":"A minority of squamous cell carcinomas: 42 of 93 in the defining molecular series were basaloid (24 pure, 18 mixed), but that series was enriched for the type (Brambilla 2014). No registry share was found in the sources read.","subtypes":["Pure basaloid squamous cell carcinoma","Mixed basaloid squamous cell carcinoma (over 50 percent basaloid pattern)"],"biomarkers":["p40 positive, TTF-1 negative","SOX4 and IVL immunohistochemistry (research predictor)","PD-L1 and CD8-positive infiltrate"],"standardOfCare":[{"setting":"All stages","approach":"Treated as squamous cell carcinoma of the lung; no trial in the variant.","refs":["lung-squamous-cell-carcinoma","pembrolizumab","keynote-407"]}],"stateOfArt":[],"history":[],"pipeline":[],"openProblems":[],"parent":"nsclc"},"route":"/cancers/basaloid-squamous-cell-carcinoma-lung/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"large-cell-lung-carcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Large cell carcinoma of the lung","route":"/cancers/large-cell-lung-carcinoma/"},{"id":"lymphoepithelial-carcinoma-lung","kind":"cancer","name":"Lymphoepithelial carcinoma of the lung","route":"/cancers/lymphoepithelial-carcinoma-lung/"},{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"},{"id":"lung-squamous-cell-carcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Squamous cell carcinoma of the lung","route":"/cancers/lung-squamous-cell-carcinoma/"}],"drug":[{"id":"pembrolizumab","kind":"drug","name":"Pembrolizumab","route":"/drugs/pembrolizumab/"}],"trial":[{"id":"keynote-407","kind":"trial","name":"KEYNOTE-407","route":"/trials/keynote-407/"}]}}