Evaluation of the programmed death-ligand 1 mRNA expression and immunopositivity and their correlation with survival outcomes in Indian lung cancer patients

The presence of membranous immunopositivity of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) in tumors serves as a key determinant of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, there are very limited studies on the evaluation of the PD-L1 mRNA expression and immunopositivity and their correlation with therapeutic response and survival outcomes, especially in Indian lung cancer patients. In this prospective study, conducted between 2017 and 2020, we collected biopsies and surgically resected tumors from 173 lung cancer patients. PD-L1 immunopositivity and mRNA expression were determined by immunohistochemistry using SP263 assay and qRT–PCR, respectively. PD-L1 expression was correlated with various clinicopathological variables, response to therapy, and survival outcomes using appropriate statistical methods. The median age was 60 years (range 33–81 years) with the majority of patients being male (86.5%) and smokers (83%). Histologically, the majority of patients were non-small cell lung cancer (89.4%) and of squamous cell carcinoma histology (64.3%). PD-L1 immunopositivity in tumor cells (tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥ 1%) was detected in 37.6%, while high immunopositivity (TPS ≥ 50%) was detected in 16.8% of lung cancer patients. Almost 76% of lung cancer patients with PD-L1 TPS ≥ 50% belonged to PD-L1 mRNA high-expression group. PD-L1 mRNA expression and immunopositivity did not correlate with response to therapy and survival outcomes. We conclude that PD-L1 immunopositivity and mRNA expression do not seem to serve as a prognostic biomarker for lung cancer patients treated with chemotherapy. More prospective studies should be planned to evaluate the predictive and prognostic relevance of PD-L1 expression in Indian lung cancer patients being treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.