Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Characterization of PD-L1 expression in Chinese non-small cell lung cancer patients with PTEN expression as a means for tissue quality screening

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The goal of this study is to evaluate PD-L1 prevalence and its association with major clinical characteristics in Chinese non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients to inform the clinical development of anti-PD1/PD-L1 agents in this population. We used phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) expression through IHC as a surrogate tissue quality marker to screen surgical NSCLC samples in tissue microarray (TMA; 172 cases) or whole-section (268 cases) format. The samples were then analyzed with a clinically validated PD-L1 IHC assay. The results were correlated with baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes. PTEN IHC showed that 108 TMA samples and 105 whole-section samples qualified for PD-L1 IHC. With a clinically relevant cutoff, 41.7% of the TMA samples were PD-L1 positive. PD-L1 level was much lower in EGFR-mutant patients and seemed to be a favorable prognostic factor for both overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS). These findings were confirmed in the whole-section samples except that their survival data were not mature enough for correlation analysis. In summary, PD-L1 expression was detected in approximately 40% of PTEN-qualified Chinese NSCLC samples, negatively correlated with EGFR mutation and seemed to be a favorable prognostic factor for both OS and RFS. Notably, the different results from PTEN-qualified and PTEN-disqualified samples underscore the importance of tissue quality control prior to biomarker testing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

CI:

Confidence interval

HR:

Hazard ratio

IC:

Immune cell

NSCLC:

Non-small cell lung cancer

PTEN:

Phosphatase and tensin homolog

RFS:

Recurrence-free survival

TC:

Tumor cell

TMA:

Tissue microarray

References

  1. Zhang X-c, Cao X, Sun C, Xie Z, Guo J-j, Yang J-j et al. Characterization of PD-L1 expression in Chinese non-small cell lung cancer patients with PTEN IHC as a means for sample quality screening. In ESMO Asia. 2016. Singapore. Ann Oncol 27(suppl_9):ix9–ix18. https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdw574

  2. Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Ervik M, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C et al. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: IARC CancerBase No. 11. GLOBOCAN 2012 v1.0. 2012. http://globocan.iarc.fr. Accessed 31 Mar 2017

  3. Siegel RL, Miller KD, Jemal A (2015) Cancer statistics, 2015. CA Cancer J Clin 65(1):5–29

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Chen W, Zheng R, Baade PD, Zhang S, Zeng H, Bray F et al (2016) Cancer statistics in China, 2015. CA Cancer J Clin 66(2):115–132

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Molina JR, Yang P, Cassivi SD, Schild SE, Adjei AA (2008) Non-small cell lung cancer: epidemiology, risk factors, treatment, and survivorship. Mayo Clin Proc 83(5):584–594

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Langer CJ, Besse B, Gualberto A, Brambilla E, Soria JC (2010) The evolving role of histology in the management of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. J Clin Oncol 28(36):5311–5320

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Travis WD, Brambilla E, Noguchi M, Nicholson AG, Geisinger KR, Yatabe Y et al (2011) International association for the study of lung cancer/American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society international multidisciplinary classification of lung adenocarcinoma. J Thorac Oncol 6(2):244–285

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Cetin K, Ettinger DS, Hei YJ, O’Malley CD (2011) Survival by histologic subtype in stage IV nonsmall cell lung cancer based on data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program. Clin Epidemiol 3:139–148

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Janku F, Stewart DJ, Kurzrock R (2010) Targeted therapy in non-small-cell lung cancer—is it becoming a reality? Nat Rev Clin Oncol 7(7):401–414

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Mok TS (2011) Personalized medicine in lung cancer: what we need to know. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 8(11):661–668

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Bareschino MA, Schettino C, Rossi A, Maione P, Sacco PC, Zeppa R et al (2011) Treatment of advanced non small cell lung cancer. J Thorac Dis 3(2):122–133

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Hayashi H, Okamoto I, Morita S, Taguri M, Nakagawa K (2012) Postprogression survival for first-line chemotherapy of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. Ann Oncol 23(6):1537–1541

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Chen DS, Irving BA, Hodi FS (2012) Molecular pathways: next-generation immunotherapy—inhibiting programmed death-ligand 1 and programmed death-1. Clin Cancer Res 18(24):6580–6587

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Fehrenbacher L, Spira A, Ballinger M, Kowanetz M, Vansteenkiste J, Mazieres J et al (2016) Atezolizumab versus docetaxel for patients with previously treated non-small-cell lung cancer (POPLAR): a multicentre, open-label, phase 2 randomised controlled trial. Lancet 387(10030):1837–1846

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Hodi FS, O’Day SJ, McDermott DF, Weber RW, Sosman JA, Haanen JB et al (2010) Improved survival with ipilimumab in patients with metastatic melanoma. N Engl J Med 363(8):711–723

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Kantoff PW, Higano CS, Shore ND, Berger ER, Small EJ, Penson DF et al (2010) Sipuleucel-T immunotherapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer. N Engl J Med 363(5):411–422

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Keir ME, Butte MJ, Freeman GJ, Sharpe AH (2008) PD-1 and its ligands in tolerance and immunity. Annu Rev Immunol 26:677–704

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Topalian SL, Drake CG, Pardoll DM (2012) Targeting the PD-1/B7-H1 (PD-L1) pathway to activate anti-tumor immunity. Curr Opin Immunol 24(2):207–212

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Pardoll DM (2012) The blockade of immune checkpoints in cancer immunotherapy. Nat Rev Cancer 12(4):252–264

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Herbst RS, Baas P, Kim DW, Felip E, Perez-Gracia JL, Han JY et al (2016) Pembrolizumab versus docetaxel for previously treated, PD-L1-positive, advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (KEYNOTE-010): a randomised controlled trial. Lancet 387(10027):1540–1550

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Borghaei H, Paz-Ares L, Horn L, Spigel DR, Steins M, Ready NE et al (2015) Nivolumab versus docetaxel in advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer. N Engl J Med 373(17):1627–1639

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Reck M, Rodriguez-Abreu D, Robinson AG, Hui R, Csoszi T, Fulop A et al (2016) Pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy for PD-L1-positive non-small-cell lung cancer. N Engl J Med 375(19):1823–1833

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Chen DS, Mellman I (2013) Oncology meets immunology: the cancer-immunity cycle. Immunity 39(1):1–10

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Zou W, Chen L (2008) Inhibitory B7-family molecules in the tumour microenvironment. Nat Rev Immunol 8(6):467–477

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Rittmeyer A, Barlesi F, Waterkamp D, Park K, Ciardiello F, von Pawel J et al (2017) Atezolizumab versus docetaxel in patients with previously treated non-small-cell lung cancer (OAK): a phase 3, open-label, multicentre randomised controlled trial. Lancet 389(10066):255–265

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Butte MJ, Keir ME, Phamduy TB, Sharpe AH, Freeman GJ (2007) Programmed death-1 ligand 1 interacts specifically with the B7–1 costimulatory molecule to inhibit T cell responses. Immunity 27(1):111–122

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  27. Yang J, Riella LV, Chock S, Liu T, Zhao X, Yuan X et al (2011) The novel costimulatory programmed death ligand 1/B7.1 pathway is functional in inhibiting alloimmune responses in vivo. J Immunol 187(3):1113–1119

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Steck PA, Pershouse MA, Jasser SA, Yung WK, Lin H, Ligon AH et al (1997) Identification of a candidate tumour suppressor gene, MMAC1, at chromosome 10q23.3 that is mutated in multiple advanced cancers. Nat Genet 15(4):356–362

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Sakr RA, Barbashina V, Morrogh M, Chandarlapaty S, Andrade VP, Arroyo CD et al (2010) Protocol for PTEN expression by immunohistochemistry in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded human breast carcinoma. Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol 18(4):371–374

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Herbst RS, Soria JC, Kowanetz M, Fine GD, Hamid O, Gordon MS et al (2014) Predictive correlates of response to the anti-PD-L1 antibody MPDL3280A in cancer patients. Nature 515(7528):563–567

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Hirsch FR, McElhinny A, Stanforth D, Ranger-Moore J, Jansson M, Kulangara K et al (2017) PD-L1 immunohistochemistry assays for lung cancer: results from phase 1 of the blueprint PD-L1 IHC assay comparison project. J Thorac Oncol 12(2):208–222

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Rimm DL, Han G, Taube JM, Yi ES, Bridge JA, Flieder DB et al (2017) A prospective multi-institutional, pathologist-based assessment of 4 immunohistochemistry assays for PD-L1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer. JAMA Oncol 3(8):1051–1058

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  33. Rizvi NA, Hellmann MD, Snyder A, Kvistborg P, Makarov V, Havel JJ et al (2015) Cancer immunology. Mutational landscape determines sensitivity to PD-1 blockade in non-small cell lung cancer. Science 348(6230):124–128

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Zhang J, Ou JX, Bai CX (2011) Tobacco smoking in China: prevalence, disease burden, challenges and future strategies. Respirology 16(8):1165–1172

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Zheng R, Zeng H, Zuo T, Zhang S, Qiao Y, Zhou Q et al (2016) Lung cancer incidence and mortality in China, 2011. Thorac Cancer 7(1):94–99

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Sun JM, Zhou W, Choi YL, Choi SJ, Kim SE, Wang Z et al (2016) Prognostic significance of PD-L1 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: a large cohort study of surgically resected cases. J Thorac Oncol 11(7):1003–1011

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Pan ZK, Ye F, Wu X, An HX, Wu JX (2015) Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of programmed cell death ligand1 (PD-L1) expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis. J Thorac Dis 7(3):462–470

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Wang A, Wang HY, Liu Y, Zhao MC, Zhang HJ, Lu ZY et al (2015) The prognostic value of PD-L1 expression for non-small cell lung cancer patients: a meta-analysis. Eur J Surg Oncol 41(4):450–456

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. D’Incecco A, Andreozzi M, Ludovini V, Rossi E, Capodanno A, Landi L et al (2015) PD-1 and PD-L1 expression in molecularly selected non-small-cell lung cancer patients. Br J Cancer 112(1):95–102

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Cooper WA, Tran T, Vilain RE, Madore J, Selinger CI, Kohonen-Corish M et al (2015) PD-L1 expression is a favorable prognostic factor in early stage non-small cell carcinoma. Lung Cancer 89(2):181–188

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Azuma K, Ota K, Kawahara A, Hattori S, Iwama E, Harada T et al (2014) Association of PD-L1 overexpression with activating EGFR mutations in surgically resected nonsmall-cell lung cancer. Ann Oncol 25(10):1935–1940

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Lin K, Cheng J, Yang T, Li Y, Zhu B (2015) EGFR-TKI down-regulates PD-L1 in EGFR mutant NSCLC through inhibiting NF-kappaB. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 463(1–2):95–101

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Song Z, Yu X, Cheng G, Zhang Y (2016) Programmed death-ligand 1 expression associated with molecular characteristics in surgically resected lung adenocarcinoma. J Transl Med 14(1):188

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  44. Tang Y, Fang W, Zhang Y, Hong S, Kang S, Yan Y et al (2015) The association between PD-L1 and EGFR status and the prognostic value of PD-L1 in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with EGFR-TKIs. Oncotarget 6(16):14209–14219

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  45. Huynh TG, Morales-Oyarvide V, Campo MJ, Gainor JF, Bozkurtlar E, Uruga H et al (2016) Programmed cell death ligand 1 expression in resected lung adenocarcinomas: association with Immune Microenvironment. J Thorac Oncol 11(11):1869–1878

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Inamura K, Yokouchi Y, Sakakibara R, Kobayashi M, Subat S, Ninomiya H et al (2016) Relationship of tumor PD-L1 expression with EGFR wild-type status and poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma. Jpn J Clin Oncol 46(10):935–941

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Ji M, Liu Y, Li Q, Li X, Ning Z, Zhao W et al (2016) PD-1/PD-L1 expression in non-small-cell lung cancer and its correlation with EGFR/KRAS mutations. Cancer Biol Ther 17(4):407–413

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  48. Koh J, Go H, Keam B, Kim MY, Nam SJ, Kim TM et al (2015) Clinicopathologic analysis of programmed cell death-1 and programmed cell death-ligand 1 and 2 expressions in pulmonary adenocarcinoma: comparison with histology and driver oncogenic alteration status. Mod Pathol 28(9):1154–1166

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Meniawy TM, Lake RA, McDonnell AM, Millward MJ, Nowak AK (2016) PD-L1 on peripheral blood T lymphocytes is prognostic in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with EGFR inhibitors. Lung Cancer 93:9–16

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Takada K, Okamoto T, Shoji F, Shimokawa M, Akamine T, Takamori S et al (2016) Clinical significance of PD-L1 protein expression in surgically resected primary lung adenocarcinoma. J Thorac Oncol 11(11):1879–1890

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Zhang Y, Wang L, Li Y, Pan Y, Wang R, Hu H et al (2014) Protein expression of programmed death 1 ligand 1 and ligand 2 independently predict poor prognosis in surgically resected lung adenocarcinoma. Onco Targets Ther 7:567–573

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  52. Zhou ZJ, Zhan P, Song Y (2015) PD-L1 over-expression and survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis. Transl Lung Cancer Res 4(2):203–208

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  53. Sorensen SF, Zhou W, Dolled-Filhart M, Georgsen JB, Wang Z, Emancipator K et al (2016) PD-L1 expression and survival among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with chemotherapy. Transl Oncol 9(1):64–69

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  54. Ameratunga M, Asadi K, Lin X, Walkiewicz M, Murone C, Knight S et al (2016) PD-L1 and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes as prognostic markers in resected NSCLC. PLoS One 11(4):e0153954

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  55. Ishii H, Azuma K, Kawahara A, Yamada K, Imamura Y, Tokito T et al (2015) Significance of programmed cell death-ligand 1 expression and its association with survival in patients with small cell lung cancer. J Thorac Oncol 10(3):426–430

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Lin C, Chen X, Li M, Liu J, Qi X, Yang W et al (2015) Programmed death-ligand 1 expression predicts tyrosine kinase inhibitor response and better prognosis in a cohort of patients with epidermal growth factor receptor mutation-positive lung adenocarcinoma. Clin Lung Cancer 16(5):e25–e35

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Miao L, Lu Y, Xu Y, Zhang G, Huang Z, Gong L et al (2017) PD-L1 and c-MET expression and survival in patients with small cell lung cancer. Oncotarget 8(33):53978–53988

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  58. Schmidt LH, Kummel A, Gorlich D, Mohr M, Brockling S, Mikesch JH et al (2015) PD-1 and PD-L1 expression in NSCLC indicate a favorable prognosis in defined subgroups. PLoS One 10(8):e0136023

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  59. Toyokawa G, Takada K, Haratake N, Takamori S, Akamine T, Katsura M et al (2016) Favorable disease-free survival associated with programmed death ligand 1 expression in patients with surgically resected small-cell lung cancer. Anticancer Res 36(8):4329–4336

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Yang CY, Lin MW, Chang YL, Wu CT, Yang PC (2016) Programmed cell death-ligand 1 expression is associated with a favourable immune microenvironment and better overall survival in stage I pulmonary squamous cell carcinoma. Eur J Cancer 57:91–103

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Robert Clarke (Oncology Biomarker Development, Genentech Inc., Basel, Switzerland) for his project management support to this study and Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Tucson, AZ, USA) for making the PD-L1 IHC assay available for this study.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Xu-chao Zhang, Xu Cao, Gang Cheng, and Yi-long Wu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, 106 Zhong-shan Er Road, Guangzhou, 510030, China

    Xu-chao Zhang, Zhi Xie, Jin-ji Yang, Xue-ning Yang & Yi-long Wu

  2. Medical Research Center, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China

    Xu-chao Zhang & Zhi Xie

  3. Oncology Biomarker Development, Genentech Inc., 1100 Long-dong Avenue, Shanghai, 201203, China

    Xu Cao, Chun Sun, Jian-jun Guo & Gang Cheng

  4. Roche Product Development in Asia Pacific, Roche (China) Holding, Ltd., Shanghai, China

    Hang-jun Dai, Su-chun Li, Xin-ran Xu, Yun-xia Zuo, Meng Chen & Jing He

  5. Pathology, Genentech Inc., Basel, Switzerland

    Hartmut Koeppen

  6. Oncology Biomarker Development, Genentech Inc., Basel, Switzerland

    Astrid Kiermaier

  7. Oncology Biomarker Development, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA

    David Shames

Authors
  1. Xu-chao Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xu Cao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Chun Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Zhi Xie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jian-jun Guo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jin-ji Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Xue-ning Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Hang-jun Dai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Su-chun Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Xin-ran Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Yun-xia Zuo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Meng Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Hartmut Koeppen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Jing He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Astrid Kiermaier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. David Shames
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Gang Cheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. Yi-long Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Conception and design of study: YW, GC, XZ, JH, and DS. Acquisition of data: XC, CS, ZX, JG, JY, XY, and HK. Analysis and/or interpretation of data: GC, XZ, XC, CS, HD, SL, XX, YZ, and MC. Drafting the manuscript: GC, XZ, XC, JG, and CS. Revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content: ZX, JY, XY, HD, SL, XX, YZ, MC, HK, JH, AK, DS, and YW. Approval of the version of the manuscript to be published (the names of all authors listed): XZ, XC, CS, ZX, JG, JY, XY, HD, SL, XX, YZ, MC, HK, JH, AK, DS, GC, and YW.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gang Cheng or Yi-long Wu.

Ethics declarations

Funding

This study was supported by Genentech Inc., a member of the Roche Group. This work was also supported by Special Fund of Public Interest from National Health and Family Control Committee (Grant No. 201402031), Key Lab System Project of Guangdong S&T Department (Grant No. 2012A061400006), The Guangdong Provincial Applied S&T Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2016B020237006), General Research Project of Guangzhou Science and Technology Bureau (Grant No. 201607010391), The National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC1303800), and Public Welfare and Capacity Establishment Program of Guangdong Science and Technology Department (Grant No. 2014A020212225).

Conflict of interest

Chun Sun, Hang-jun Dai, Su-chun Li, and Yun-xia Zuo are employees of F. Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech Inc. Xu Cao, Jian-jun Guo, Xin-ran Xu, Meng Chen, Hartmut Koeppen, Jing He, Astrid Kiermaier, David Shames, and Gang Cheng are employees of F. Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech Inc. and hold stocks of F. Hoffmann-La Roche. All the other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval and ethical standards

This study was approved by the institutional review board of Guangdong General Hospital in Guangzhou, China according to the Helsinki declaration.

Informed consent

The acquisition of written informed consent was waived by the institutional review board of Guangdong General Hospital in Guangzhou, China with the condition that all samples must be anonymized during the study.

Additional information

Results in this paper have been published before as a poster titled “Characterization of PD-L1 expression in Chinese non-small cell lung cancer patients with PTEN IHC as a means for sample quality screening” in ESMO Asia 2016, December 16–19, 2016, Singapore [1].

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 329 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, Xc., Cao, X., Sun, C. et al. Characterization of PD-L1 expression in Chinese non-small cell lung cancer patients with PTEN expression as a means for tissue quality screening. Cancer Immunol Immunother 67, 471–481 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-017-2098-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-017-2098-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation