Association of programmed death ligand 1 expression with prognosis among patients with ten uncommon advanced cancers

Torben Steiniche; Morten Ladekarl; Jeanette Bæhr Georgsen; Simon Andreasen; Michael Busch-Sørensen; Wei Zhou; Matthew J Marton; Scott K Pruitt; Fan Jin; Kai-Li Liaw

doi:10.2144/fsoa-2020-0063

Association of programmed death ligand 1 expression with prognosis among patients with ten uncommon advanced cancers

Future Sci OA. 2020 Aug 19;6(8):FSO616. doi: 10.2144/fsoa-2020-0063.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Pathology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus DK-8200, Denmark.
² Department of Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research Center, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
³ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery & Audiology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴ Department of Otorhinolaryngology & Maxillofacial Surgery, Zealand University Hospital, Køge, Denmark.
⁵ Busch-Sørensen Consulting, Virum, Denmark.
⁶ Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA.

Abstract

Aim: PD-L1 expression and high levels of microsatellite instability (MSI-H) may predict response to checkpoint inhibitors, but their prevalence and prognostic value are unknown in many cancers.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated PD-L1 combined positive score (CPS) and MSI-H and their association with clinical outcomes among patients with ten advanced uncommon cancers.

Results: 398 of 426 patients (93%) had a valid PD-L1 result; most (242; 61%) had CPS ≥1. Prevalence of MSI-H tumors was 8/360. Median overall survival was shorter among patients with PD-L1 CPS ≥1 tumors after first-line treatment (23.0 vs 39.7 months, p = 0.014).

Conclusion: PD-L1 was commonly expressed in solid tumors, and CPS ≥1 was associated with shorter overall survival. Prevalence of MSI-H was low.

Keywords: anal carcinoma; biliary adenocarcinoma; cervical carcinoma; endometrial carcinoma; mesothelioma; neuroendocrine tumors; salivary gland carcinoma; small-cell lung carcinoma; thyroid carcinoma; vulvar carcinoma.