Programmed death‐ligand 1 is a promising blood marker for predicting tumor progression and prognosis in patients with gastric cancer

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy has been clinically introduced for several malignancies, and its effectiveness has been confirmed by clinical trials. In particular, programmed cell death protein 1 (PD‐1) and programmed death‐ligand 1 (PD‐L1) are widely known as important immune checkpoint molecules associated with the mechanisms of immune escape by malignant tumor cells. In addition, liquid biopsy of blood specimens has the clinical benefit of providing a simple, repeatable sampling tool. Non‐invasive liquid biopsy has recently been spotlighted as a promising approach to predicting tumor progression and prognosis. This study assessed the clinical significance of PD‐L1 mRNA expression in blood specimens obtained from patients with gastric cancer. Peripheral blood specimens were collected before treatment from 124 patients with gastric cancer. The PD‐L1 mRNA expression was evaluated by quantitative RT‐PCR. Programmed death‐ligand 1 mRNA expression was significantly higher in patients with advanced gastric cancer than in patients with early gastric cancer (P = .002). Moreover, PD‐L1 expression correlated significantly with depth of tumor invasion, distant metastasis, and stage (P = .001, P < .001, and P < .001, respectively). Patients with high PD‐L1 expression showed significantly poorer prognosis than those with low PD‐L1 expression (P < .0001). Multivariate analysis indicated PD‐L1 expression as an independent prognostic factor. Expression of PD‐L1 in peripheral blood may offer an immunological predictor of tumor progression and disease outcome in patients with gastric cancer.

The Clinical Significance of Soluble Programmed Cell Death-Ligand 1 (sPD-L1) in Patients With Gliomas

“…At present, the difficulties associated with performing biopsies hamper glioma diagnosis and therapeutic intervention, highlighting the need to discover non-invasive or minimally invasive biomarkers for early diagnosis and correct stratification (31). sPD-L1 can be detected in biofluids, providing a novel diagnostic test for a variety of tumors (32)(33)(34). In our previous study, elevated sPD-L1 levels in the serum were observed in preoperative patients with HGG.…”

Is high serum programmed death ligand 1 level a risk factor for poor survival in patients with gastric cancer?

“…Binding of programmed death‐1 (PD‐1) and its ligands—programmed death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) and programmed death ligand 2 (PD‐L2)—on tumor or immune cells can inhibit cytotoxic T‐cell responses, allowing tumor cells to evade immune detection . Clinical trials of anti‐PD‐1/PD‐L1 antibodies have reported a high response rate and significantly improved overall survival in several malignancies …”

Targeted Therapies in Metastatic Gastric Cancer: Challenges and Perspectives

“…On the other hand, the genomic instability that characterizes the heterogeneity of gastric cancer can be put to good use, making it a good candidate for immune therapy, owing to neoepitope presentation on cancer cell surfaces that enhances tumor immunogenicity [6,7]. A Recent study assessed the clinical significance of Programmed-celldeath protein-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) mRNA expression in blood specimens obtained from patients with gastric cancer [25]. PD-L1 mRNA expression was significantly higher in patients with advanced gastric cancer than in patients with early gastric cancer (p=0.002) [25].…”

“…A Recent study assessed the clinical significance of Programmed-celldeath protein-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) mRNA expression in blood specimens obtained from patients with gastric cancer [25]. PD-L1 mRNA expression was significantly higher in patients with advanced gastric cancer than in patients with early gastric cancer (p=0.002) [25]. In addition, PD-L1 expression correlated significantly with depth of tumor invasion, distant metastasis, and stage (p=0.001, p<0.001, and p<0.001, respectively).…”