Diagnostic yield of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration to assess tumor-programmed cell death ligand-1 expression in mediastinal lymph nodes metastasized from non-small cell lung cancer

• Published in: Surgery today (Tokyo, Japan) Japan), 2020-09, Vol.50 (9), p.1049-1055
• Main Authors: Mineura, Katsutaka, Hamaji, Masatsugu, Yoshizawa, Akihiko, Nakajima, Naoki, Kayawake, Hidenao, Tanaka, Satona, Yamada, Yoshito, Yutaka, Yojiro, Nakajima, Daisuke, Ohsumi, Akihiro, Menju, Toshi, Chen-Yoshikawa, Toyofumi F., Date, Hiroshi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Article; Surgery; Surgical Oncology
• ISSN: 0941-1291; 1436-2813
• DOI: 10.1007/s00595-020-01989-6

Purpose We investigated the utility of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) to evaluate programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods A retrospective chart review of patients who underwent EBUS-TBNA between April 2017 and April 2019 was conducted. Among patients diagnosed with NSCLC, we investigated the rate of successful evaluation of tumor PD-L1 expression, compared the relevant factors between patients with evaluable and those with unevaluable PD-L1 expression, and examined the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) after EBUS-TBNA. Results Of the 40 patients assessed, 32 (80%) had evaluable PD-L1 expression. Patients with evaluable PD-L1 expression were older than those with unevaluable PD-L1 expression ( p  = 0.017), and we noted a tendency for a larger diameter of the biopsied lymph node ( p  = 0.12). The response rate to ICIs was 100% in patients with a tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥ 50%, 33% in those with a TPS 1–49%, and 0% in those with a TPS