Ibrahim MY, et al. – Researchers investigated the impact of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) pathway dysregulation in either head and neck cancer cells and/or tumor infiltrating immune cells on outcomes of patients with surgically treated oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). For this purpose, they developed tissue microarrays containing 123 oral tongue SCC samples and performed immunohistochemistry using antibodies against 7 PI3-kinase pathway markers. They then correlated the expression levels in cancer cells or tumor infiltrating immune cells with outcomes. They found that high phosphatase and tensin homolog expression levels in immune cells were significantly correlated to improved recurrence-free survival and overall survival. Overall, the investigators identified a new, negative prognostic role of PI3-kinase activation. For clinical development of PI-3 kinase inhibitors for this disease, these findings could be relevant.