Circulating PD-L1 in NSCLC patients and the correlation between the level of PD-L1 expression and the clinical characteristics.
BACKGROUND
The programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death-1 ligand (PD-1/PD-L1) pathway plays a crucial role in tumor evasion. This study evaluated the association between circulating PD-L1 expression and clinical characteristics in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).


METHODS
A total of 109 advanced NSCLC and 65 healthy patients from the Beijng Cancer Hospital were enrolled in the study. Circulating PD-L1 expression was tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The associations between the level of PD-L1 expression and clinicopathologic features and prognosis were statistically analyzed.


RESULTS
The expression of PD-L1 in advanced NSCLC patients was significantly upregulated compared with the healthy control (P < 0.001). The expression of PD-L1 was significantly correlated with abdominal organ metastasis (P = 0.004). A high PD-L1 expression had a worse prognosis than a low expression in patients (18.7 vs. 26.8 month, P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
PD-L1 was elevated in advanced NSCLC patients and may play an important role in tumor immune evasion and patient prognosis.
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Jie
J
Zhang
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Jing
J
Gao
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Yanyan
Y
Li
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Jun
J
Nie
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Ling
L
Dai
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Weiheng
W
Hu
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Xiaoling
X
Chen
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Jindi
J
Han
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Xiangjuan
X
Ma
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Guangming
G
Tian
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Di
D
Wu
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Lin
L
Shen
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Thoracic Oncology II and GI Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute Beijing, China.
Jian
J
Fang
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); PD-L1; immunotherapy; lung cancer