Abstract
The effects of treatments to programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) on PD-L1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. PD-L1 expression was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) method in 32 paired tumor specimens pre and post-NACT. The positivity of PD-L1 on tumor cells (TCs) changed from 75% to 37.5% after NACT (p = 0.003). Cases with IHC score of 1, 2, 3 all underwent apparent decrease (p = 0.007). However, no significant changes were observed on tumour-infiltrating immune cells (ICs) (p = 0.337). Subgroup and semiquantitative analyses all presented similar results. Moreover, patients with response to NACT presented significantly reduced PD-L1 expression on TCs (p = 0.004). Although it was not confirmed by the Cox proportional hazard regression model, there was an apparent difference in disease-free-survival (DFS) between negative-to-positive switch of PD-L1 status and the contrary group (median DFS: 9.6 versus 25.9, p = 0.005). Our data revealed that antecedent chemotherapy for NSCLC may results in inconsistency of PD-L1 expression. PD-L1 expression is suggested to be monitored around treatment and on serial samples, at least, on the latest tumor specimen.
Highlights
Properties, numerous anticancer agents possess the capacity to stimulate host immune system, facilitate tumor eradication[24,25,26]
The prognostic and predictive value of PD-L1 IHC was assumed to temporally dependent on the antecedent treatment and time of biopsy. We conducted this exploratory analyses with paired non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) specimen pre and post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) to explore the impact of chemotherapy on PD-L1 expression
Among eight (25%) patients received EGFR-TKIs, four patients were treated with erlotinib plus chemotherapy
Summary
Properties, numerous anticancer agents possess the capacity to stimulate host immune system, facilitate tumor eradication[24,25,26]. The prognostic and predictive value of PD-L1 IHC was assumed to temporally dependent on the antecedent treatment and time of biopsy. We conducted this exploratory analyses with paired NSCLC specimen pre and post-NACT to explore the impact of chemotherapy on PD-L1 expression. The association between PD-L1 change patterns and prognosis were analyzed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
