PD-L1 is remarkably over-expressed in EBV-associated pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma and related to poor disease-free survival

• DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.5028
• Publication Date: 2015-09-29T21:54:23Z
• Authors: Wenfeng Fang; Shaodong Hong; Nan Chen; Xiaobo He; Jianhua Zhan; Tao Qin; Ting Zhou; Zhihuang Hu; Yuxiang Ma; Yuanyuan Zhao; Ying Tian; Yunpeng Yang; Cong Xue; Yanna Tang; Yan Huang; Hongyun Zhao; Li Zhang
• Keywords: Male; 03 medical and health sciences; Lung Neoplasms; 0302 clinical medicine; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor; Humans; Female; Middle Aged; Disease-Free Survival; 3. Good health

Programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and driver mutations are commonly seen in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the prevelance of PD-L1 over-expression and its prognostic value in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) associated pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) remains poorly understood.A total of 214 NSCLC patients and 113 surgically treated pulmonary LELC patients were included. Paraffin-embedded tumor sections were stained with PD-L1 antibody. Correlations between PD-L1 expression and clinicopathological features as well as survival outcomes were analyzed.The frequency of PD-L1 over-expression in NSCLC was 51.4%. No significant association was observed between common driver mutations and PD-L1 over-expression. Remakably, the positive rate of PD-L1 in pulmonary LELC was 74.3%. High PD-L1 expression was associated with impaired disease-free survival (DFS) compared with low PD-L1 expression (p = 0.008). Multivariate analysis shows that PD-L1 expression level, N stage and M stage were independent prognostic factors for DFS. N stage and M stage but not PD-L1 expression level were significantly associated with overall survival (OS).PD-L1 over-expression was not related to common driver mutations in NSCLC. Pulmonary LELC have remarkably high incidence of PD-L1 expression. PD-L1 was a negative prognostic factor for DFS in surgically resected pulmonary LELC. These findings may provide a rationale for immunotarget therapy in this virus-associated lung cancer.