PD-1 and PD-L1 Expression in NSCLC Indicate a Favorable Prognosis in Defined Subgroups
Background: Immunotherapy can become a crucial therapeutic option to improve prognosis for lung cancer patients. First clinical trials with therapies targeting the programmed cell death receptor PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1 have shown promising results in several solid tumors. However, in lung cancer t...
Verfasser: | |
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FB/Einrichtung: | FB 05: Medizinische Fakultät |
Dokumenttypen: | Artikel |
Medientypen: | Text |
Erscheinungsdatum: | 2015 |
Publikation in MIAMI: | 04.12.2015 |
Datum der letzten Änderung: | 13.09.2023 |
Angaben zur Ausgabe: | [Electronic ed.] |
Quelle: | PLoS ONE 10 (2015) 8, e0136023, 1-15 |
Fachgebiet (DDC): | 610: Medizin und Gesundheit |
Lizenz: | CC BY 4.0 |
Sprache: | English |
Anmerkungen: | Finanziert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 2015/2016 der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU Münster). |
Format: | PDF-Dokument |
ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-07269496604 |
Weitere Identifikatoren: | DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136023 |
Permalink: | https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-07269496604 |
Onlinezugriff: | journal.pone.0136023.pdf |
Background: Immunotherapy can become a crucial therapeutic option to improve prognosis for lung cancer patients. First clinical trials with therapies targeting the programmed cell death receptor PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1 have shown promising results in several solid tumors. However, in lung cancer the diagnostic, prognostic and predictive value of these immunologic factors remains unclear. Method: The impact of both factors was evaluated in a study collective of 321 clinically well-annotated patients with non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) using immunohistochemistry. Results: PD-1 expression by tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) was found in 22%, whereas tumor cell associated PD-L1 expression was observed in 24% of the NSCLC tumors. In Fisher’s exact test a positive correlation was found for PD-L1 and Bcl-xl protein expression (p = 0.013). Interestingly, PD-L1 expression on tumor cells was associated with improved overall survival in pulmonary squamous cell carcinomas (SCC, p = 0.042, log rank test), with adjuvant therapy (p = 0.017), with increased tumor size (pT2-4, p = 0.039) and with positive lymph node status (pN1-3, p = 0.010). These observations were confirmed by multivariate cox regression models. Conclusion: One major finding of our study is the identification of a prognostic implication of PD-L1 in subsets of NSCLC patients with pulmonary SCC, with increased tumor size, with a positive lymph node status and NSCLC patients who received adjuvant therapies. This study provides first data for immune-context related risk stratification of NSCLC patients. Further studies are necessary both to confirm this observation and to evaluate the predictive value of PD-1 and PD-L1 in NSCLC in the context of PD-1 inhibition.