The level of soluble programmed death ligand-1 in lung cancer: An exploratory biomarker study

Background

A new approach to immunotherapy based on programmed death 1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) pathway represents a remarkable innovation in lung cancer treatment. There is growing evidence that lung cancer cells exploit the PD-L1 to cause local immune-suppression. The aim of this prospective study was to investigate the prevalence and prognostic roles of soluble PD-L1(sPD-L1 ) protein in the blood of patients with lung cancer.

Methods

A total of 159 patients with lung cancer who were diagnosed by histopathology or cytopathology between July 2013 to October 2015 were enrolled. Blood samples plasma were collected at the time of diagnosis. 85 samples of healthy subjects matching in sex and age from the Health care Center of the hospital were also studied as control. The level of sPD-L1 protein in the blood was measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbentassay (ELISA). 64 cases of lung cancer patients who were treated with platinum based chemotherapy for 4-6 cycles were followed up. The median follow-up duration since the time of diagnosis was 18.6 months (range, 4-26.6 months). The associations between the level of sPD-L1 expression and clinicopathologic features and prognosis were statistically analyzed.

Results

Expression of sPD-L1 in lung cancer patients was significantly up-regulated compared with health people( P 

Conclusions

Our results indicated that plasma sPD-L1 protein was elevated in lung cancer patients and was associated with a poor prognosis. Plasma sPD-L1 protein is a potent predicting biomarker in lung cancer and may may play a pivotal role in tumor immune evasion.

Clinical trial identification

Legal entity responsible for the study

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Funding

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Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.