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Successful Elizabeth Blackwell Institute Grant: Predicting PD-L1 Status From H&E Slides Using AI

Tom Dudding, Bristol Dental School; Qiang Liu, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology; Sarah Hargreaves, Bristol Dental School; Miranda Pring, Bristol Dental School

There are approximately 377,700 newly diagnosed mouth cancers each year worldwide. Despite treatment, survival rates remain low, and side effects are life changing. Some people with early-stage cancer unexpectedly experience poor outcomes, such as

recurrence or early death, and these high-risk patients are often hard to identify. New ways to detect and manage these high-risk cancers are needed.

PD-L1 is a marker found on many cells, including mouth cancer cells. It helps cancers hide from the immune system and may contribute to poorer outcomes. This marker can however be targeted using drugs like Pembrolizumab, which block PD-L1 and help the patient’s immune system fight the cancer. Because of this, PD-L1 is now an important marker used in clinical practice, to guide treatment decisions for people presenting with late-stage head and neck cancers.

This project aims to develop an AI tool to predict PD-L1 expression in mouth cancer directly from digital histology slides, bypassing costly and limited lab tests. 

Using the HN5000 cohort—750 digitised slides with linked biospecimens and long-term follow-up—the pilot will create a proof-of-concept AI model. This will support future funding bids, improve diagnostic equity, and expand access to immunotherapy in both NHS and global settings. Deliverables include a validated AI tool for PD-L1 detection, benchmarking against immunohistochemistry to establish reliability, and preliminary analysis to underpin external bids enabling translation of AI-enabled PD-L1 testing into multi-centre validation and ultimately routine clinical practice.

 

 

Visiting student from the USA

We were delighted to hear from Emily Foley who was hosted by Bristol University Dental School over the summer. Emily spent 6 weeks conducting some excellent research with the Head and Neck 5000 team while visiting from the US. She presented her work to the study executive and this will form part of a future publication looking into dental impacts of Head and Neck Cancer.

 

 

BAHNO grant 

Tom Dudding was recently successfully awarded the BAHNO research grant. This funding will contribute to ongoing work using the genetic data in Head and Neck 5000 titled: The influence of rare genetic variation on head and neck cancer mutation and survival.

 

 

Head and neck 5000 feature in a short film about head and neck cancer research

 

Head and neck 5000 takes a leading role in this short film highlighting the research being conducted at Bristol University in the area of head and neck cancer. It highlights the collaborative nature of the study and how we try to value our patients ideas in all we do:

 

 

 

Largest head and neck cancer genetics study, led by Head and Neck 5000 team, published

 

We have recently co-led this exciting research investigating genetic predisposition to head and neck cancers. The study identified regions of the genome which are related to the chances of getting head and neck cancer. Some of these tally with what we knew before and others identify new areas for investigation. As always this study wouldn’t have been possible without our wonderful participants – thank you.

 

 

 

International Association of Dental Research Presentation

Tom Dudding recently presented early findings from the 10-year questionnaire follow-up regarding the dental health of Head and Neck 5000 participants. The presentation sparked an interesting discussion in a room of dentists and dental researchers about what could be done to improve the health care for head and neck cancer patients.

 

 

BAHNO 2025

Tom Dudding recently presented the preliminary findings from the 10-year follow-up in Head and Neck 5000 at the Annual BAHNO conference. There was lots of interest from the audience and collaborative research is already underway with these data.

 

 

10 Year Follow-Up – Milestone Reached!

1000

We have so far received over 1000 of the 10 year follow up questionnaires.

A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed, your responses are invaluable to the continuation of our ground-breaking research into head and neck cancer.

 

 

10 Year Follow-Up – Progress

 
Heatmap of the Head and Neck 5000 10 Year Questionnaire respondentsImage by Google, GeoBasis-DE/BKG

 

 We have so far received over 840 of the 10 year follow up questionnaires. These have been scanned in, and processing and data analysis has already begun.

We are preparing to send out reminder packs to those who haven’t had a chance to respond yet, these will contain new questionnaires so don’t worry if you have mislaid your original.

A massive thank you everyone who has returned a questionnaire so far, the information you provide is invaluable to further our understanding of the impact head and neck cancer has on people’s lives.
 

Questionnaire Feedback
The questionnaires continue to come back in, so far we have received over 800 and we’ve had lots of positive feedback.

A few people have queried why we ask about finance and work in the questionnaire, these questions help us to find out which groups of people are affected by head and neck cancer, and how the impact of cancer affects people.

If you have any questions you would like to discuss with us please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

We have contact form which you can use. Alternatively you can call us on 0117 3429531.  If we aren’t able to answer the phone leave a message and we will get back to you.

Well read!

We have been notified that the journal Psycho-Oncology has listed a paper using Head and Neck 5000 data as one of their top 10 most-cited papers.

Well done to all involved!

Associations between markers of social functioning and depression and quality of life in survivors of head and neck cancer: Findings from the Head and Neck Cancer 5000 study

#TopCitedArticle.
British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists (BAHNO) Annual Scientific Meeting 2024We were proud to represent HN5000 at the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists (BAHNO) Annual Scientific Meeting 2024 in London. This was attended by the full scope of UK multidisciplinary professionals involved in the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of patients with head and neck cancer, in addition to patient and public representatives. We were delighted to see that HN5000 data was included in a wide range of research projects presented, and utilised by many different disciplines. It was the perfect event to launch our 10 year follow up study.

Scanning of our histopathology slides

We’re currently working hard on our digital histology imaging project, which is being funded by the Showering Trust at Southmead Hospital in Bristol. We are creating a collection of more than 5000 histology images. These images show the detailed structure of tumours, as well as common studies on biomarkers found in tissues. The digital library of histopathological images will be directly connected to our HN5000 databases, which store information about diseases and their patterns. This means we are able to easily share data on diseases and tissue biomarkers with researchers.