Relationship between programmed death-ligand 1 and clinicopathological characteristics in non-small cell lung cancer patients.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the correlation between programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in primary lung cancer cells, tumor associated macrophages (TAM) and patients' clinicopathological characteristics.


METHODS
From 2008 to 2010, 208 non-small cell lung cancer patients who underwent surgery or CT-guided biopsy were recruited from Huadong Hospital, Fudan University. Immunohistochemistry staining was performed to evaluate the PD-L1 expression in both primary lung cancer cells and CD68 positive TAM. The relationship between PD-L1 expression and the clinical pathology was evaluated using χ(2) test. Spearman's rank correlations were used to determine the correlation between PD-L1 expression in tumor cells and macrophages.


RESULTS
Positive PD-L1 expression in primary cancer cells was found in 136 (65.3%) patients, which were negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.009) and smoking history (P=0.036). Besides, TAM with PD-L1 expression (found in 116 patients) was positively associated with smoking history (P=0.034), well-differentiation (P=0.029) and negative lymph node metastasis (P=0.0096). A correlation between PD-L1 expression in primary tumor cells and non-small cell lung cancer associated macrophages was found (r=0.228, P=0.021).


CONCLUSIONS
PD-L1, secreted from TAM, might induce cancer cells apoptosis, and decrease lymph node metastasis.
Yan-yan
YY
Chen
Liu-bo
LB
Wang
Hui-li
HL
Zhu
Xiang-yang
XY
Li
Yan-ping
YP
Zhu
Yu-lei
YL
Yin
Fan-zhen
FZ
Lü
Zi-li
ZL
Wang
Jie-ming
JM
Qu
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017209:Apoptosis; D060890:B7-H1 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism*; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D060890:B7-H1 Antigen; C423236:CD274 protein, human