Soluble PD-L1 is a predictive and prognostic biomarker in advanced cancer patients who receive immune checkpoint blockade treatment

• Published in: Scientific reports 2021-10, Vol.11 (1), p.19712-11, Article 19712
• Main Authors: Oh, So Yeon, Kim, Soyeon, Keam, Bhumsuk, Kim, Tae Min, Kim, Dong-Wan, Heo, Dae Seog
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/67; 692/4028; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Apoptosis; B7-H1 Antigen - blood; Biomarkers, Tumor; Bladder cancer; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors - administration & dosage; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors - adverse effects; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Leukocytes (neutrophilic); Lung cancer; Lymphocytes; Male; Melanoma; Middle Aged; Molecular Targeted Therapy; multidisciplinary; Neoplasm Grading; Neoplasm Staging; Neoplasms - blood; Neoplasms - diagnosis; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Neoplasms - etiology; Non-small cell lung carcinoma; Patients; PD-L1 protein; Prognosis; ROC Curve; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Small cell lung carcinoma; Treatment Outcome; Urothelial cancer; Urothelial carcinoma; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-99311-y

Circulating soluble programmed death-1 ligand (sPD-L1) is measurable in the serum of cancer patients. This study aimed to investigate the significance of sPD-L1 in cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Blood samples were obtained before and after immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy (January 2015 to January 2019). The study cohort consisted of 128 patients who were diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (n = 50), melanoma (n = 31), small cell lung cancer (n = 14), urothelial carcinoma (n = 13), and other cancers (n = 20). Patients with a high level (> 11.0 pg/μL) of sPD-L1 were more likely to exhibit progressive disease compared with those with a low level (41.8% versus 20.7%, p = 0.013). High sPD-L1 was also associated with worse prognosis; the median PFS was 2.9 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.1–3.7) months versus 6.3 (95% CI 3.0–9.6) months (p = 0.023), and the median OS was 7.4 (95% CI 6.3–8.5) months versus 13.3 (95% CI 9.2–17.4) months (p = 0.005). In the multivariate analyses, high sPD-L1 was an independent prognostic factor for both decreased PFS (HR 1.928, p = 0.038) and OS (HR 1.788, p = 0.004). sPD-L1 levels did not correlate with tissue PD-L1 expression. However, sPD-L1 levels were positively correlated with neutrophil to lymphocyte ratios and negatively correlated with both the proportion and the total number of lymphocytes. We found that high pretreatment sPD-L1 levels were associated with progressive disease and were an independent prognostic factor predicting lower PFS and OS in these patients.