Summary Background The objective of this prospective study was to evaluate whether soluble programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) and serum amyloid A1 (SAA1) are potential diagnostic, predictive or prognostic biomarkers in lung cancer. Methods Lung cancer patients (n=115) with advanced metastatic disease, 101 with non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC (77 EGFR wild-type NSCLC patients on chemotherapy, 15 EGFR mutation positive adenocarcinoma patients, 9 patients with mPD-L1 Expression ≥50% NSCLC – responders to immunotherapy), and 14 patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) were examined. ELISA method was used to determine sPD-L1 and SAA1 concentrations in patients’ plasma. Results Significantly higher blood concentrations of sPD-L1 and SAA1 were noted in lung cancer patients compared with a healthy control group. In PD-L1+ NSCLC patients, a significantly higher sPD-L1 level was noticed compared to any other lung cancer subgroup, as well as the highest average SAA1 value compared to other subgroups. Conclusions It seems that sPD-1/PD-L1 might be a potential biomarker, prognostic and/ or predictive, particularly in patients treated with immunotherapy. Serum amyloid A1 has potential to act as a good predictor of patients’ survival, as well as a biomarker of a more advanced disease, with possibly good capability to predict the course of disease measured at different time points.

Background/Aim. Hypoxia is one of the major changes that occurs in the tumor microenvironment. It has been observed that there are pluripotent cancer cells in the cancer cell population that affect tumor growth and their resistance to therapy. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α), endogenous marker of hypoxia, and SOX2, marker of the pluripotent stem cells existing in the normal adult tissues, in the cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Methods. The study was conducted in 90 women with invasive cervical SCC, divided into two groups-60 women in the Group A, with FIGO IB1 < 20 mm tumors (no metastases in the lymph nodes), and 30 women in the group B with tumors FIGO I-II (positive lymph nodes). The basic clinical parameters were determined by standard histopathological analysis, and the expression of HIF-1α and SOX2 by immunohistochemical examination. Results. There was a significant difference between the groups A and B, in the expression of HIF-1α (p = 0.024), but not in the expression of SOX2 (p = 0.566). Expression of HIF-1α was significantly higher in the group with lymph node metastases and invasion of lymphovascular spaces (p <0.001) but not associated with tumor size (p = 0.291) or lymphocytic stromal response (p = 0.940). The tumor grade significantly influenced the expression of HIF-1α (p = 0.013). The expression of SOX2 did not significantly correlate with any of the established clinical tumor parameters. Conclusion. A significant difference in the expression of HIF-1 α between the group with and that without metastases in lymph nodes in invasive cervical SCC could distinguish HIF-1α as a parameter of poor prognosis of the disease. The prognostic significance of SOX2 as well as a significant correlation between expression of HIF-1α and SOX2 were not established.

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