Real-world prevalence of programmed death ligand 1 expression in locally advanced or metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer: The global, multicenter EXPRESS study

• Published in: Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Netherlands), 2019-08, Vol.134, p.174-179
• Main Authors: Dietel, M., Savelov, N., Salanova, R., Micke, P., Bigras, G., Hida, T., Antunez, J., Guldhammer Skov, B., Hutarew, G., Sua, L.F., Akita, H., Chan, O.S.H., Piperdi, B., Burke, T., Khambata-Ford, S., Deitz, A.C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomarker; non-small-cell lung cancer; Pathology; Patologi; PD-L1; Prevalence
• ISSN: 0169-5002; 1872-8332; 1872-8332
• DOI: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2019.06.012

•EXPRESS evaluated real-world prevalence of PD-L1 expression in advanced NSCLC.•The PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx assay was used, with local testing across 18 countries.•Testing failure rate was low with PD-L1 evaluation across a large number of sites.•The prevalence of PD-L1 expression was similar across geographic regions.•53% of patients without EGFR/ALK aberrations had PD-L1 TPS ≥ 1% and 27% had TPS ≥ 50%. : Tumor programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is associated with improved clinical benefit from immunotherapies targeting the PD-1 pathway. We conducted a global, multicenter, retrospective observational study to determine real-world prevalence of tumor PD-L1 expression in patients with NSCLC. : Patients ≥18 years with histologically confirmed stage IIIB/IV NSCLC and a tumor tissue block (≤5 years old) obtained before treatment were identified in 45 centers across 18 countries. Tumor samples from eligible patients were selected consecutively, when possible. PD-L1 expression was evaluated at each center using the PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx kit (Agilent, Santa Clara, CA, USA). : Of 2617 patients who met inclusion criteria, 2368 (90%) had PD-L1 data; 530 (22%) patients had PD-L1 TPS ≥ 50%, 1232 (52%) had PD-L1 TPS ≥ 1%, and 1136 (48%) had PD-L1 TPS