Discrepancy in Programmed Cell Death-Ligand 1 Between Primary and Metastatic Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.

AIM: To investigate the discordance in the programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression between primary and metastatic tumors and analyze the association between the discordance and the clinical factors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

Twenty-one NSCLC patients who underwent surgery or biopsy for paired primary and metastatic lesions at our Institution from 2005 to 2016 were analyzed. Lesions with the PD-L1 expression being ≥5% were considered PD-L1-positive.

RESULTS

The metastatic sites included the brain (n=16), adrenal gland (n=3), spleen (n=1) and jejunum (n=1). Negative conversion of the primary PD-L1-positive NSCLC and positive conversion of the primary PD-L1-negative NSCLC were observed in 3 (14%) and 2 (10%) cases, respectively. Radiotherapy for the metastatic brain lesion before its resection showed a significant relationship with the positive conversion of the primary PD-L1-negative NSCLC (p=0.048).

CONCLUSION

Radiotherapy-derived effects may contribute to the positive conversion of the primary PD-L1-negative NSCLC.