PD-L1 Expression Associated with Epstein-Barr Virus Status and Patients' Survival in a Large Cohort of Gastric Cancer Patients in Northern Brazil

Gastric cancer (GC) is a worldwide health problem, making it one of the most common types of cancer, in fifth place of all tumor types, and the third highest cause of cancer deaths in the world. There is a subgroup of GC that consists of tumors infected with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and is chara...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancers 2021-06, Vol.13 (13), p.3107
Main Authors: de Fátima Aquino Moreira-Nunes, Caroline, de Souza Almeida Titan Martins, Cláudia Nazaré, Feio, Danielle, Lima, Isamu Komatsu, Lamarão, Leticia Martins, de Souza, Carolina Rosal Teixeira, Costa, Igor Brasil, da Silva Maués, Jersey Heitor, Soares, Paulo Cardoso, de Assumpção, Paulo Pimentel, Burbano, Rommel Mário Rodríguez
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abdomen
Apoptosis
Biopsy
Cell death
Chemotherapy
Dissection
Epstein-Barr virus
Gastric cancer
Gastrointestinal surgery
Gene expression
Immunotherapy
L1 protein
Ligands
Metastasis
mRNA
Neoplasia
Patients
PD-L1 protein
Proteins
Survival analysis
Tumors
Ultrasonic imaging
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Summary:Gastric cancer (GC) is a worldwide health problem, making it one of the most common types of cancer, in fifth place of all tumor types, and the third highest cause of cancer deaths in the world. There is a subgroup of GC that consists of tumors infected with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and is characterized mainly by the overexpression of programmed cell death protein-ligand-1 (PD-L1). In the present study, we present histopathological and survival data of a thousand GC patients, associated with EBV status and PD-L1 expression. Of the thousand tumors analyzed, 190 were EBV-positive and the vast majority (86.8%) had a high relative expression of mRNA and PD-L1 protein ( < 0.0001) in relation to non-neoplastic control. On the other hand, in EBV-negative samples, the majority had a low PD-L1 expression of RNA and protein ( < 0.0001). In the Kaplan-Meier analysis, the probability of survival and increased overall survival of EBV-positive GC patients was impacted by the PD-L1 overexpression ( < 0.0001 and = 0.004, respectively). However, the PD-L1 low expression was correlated with low overall survival in those patients. Patients with GC positive for EBV, presenting PD-L1 overexpression can benefit from immunotherapy treatments and performing the quantification of PD-L1 in gastric neoplasms should be adopted as routine.
ISSN:2072-6694
2072-6694
DOI:10.3390/cancers13133107