Abstract
Background
Novel immunotherapeutic strategies, such as those targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis, are promising in patients with metastatic lung cancer and are often administered when tumors show PD-L1 positivity. The objective of this study was to analyze PD-L1 receptor discordance in tumor cell between the primary tumor and lung cancer brain metastasis (LCBM).
Methods
A systematic review of series published prior to April 2021 obtained from the Medline database of biopsied or resected LCBM evaluating PD-L1 discordance was performed using PRISMA guidelines. Weighted random effects models were used to calculate pooled estimates.
Results
Six full-text articles (n=247 patients) with a median of 32 patients in each study (range: 24–73 patients) reported PD-L1 receptor expression analyses of both primary lung tumors and brain metastases. The majority of patients (81%) were smokers, with 67% non-small cell lung cancer and 33% small cell lung cancer. The pooled estimate for overall PD-LI receptor concordance between primary and LCBM was 76% (95% CI: 52%-90). The positivity rate varied when analyzed by various cutoff levels of PD-L1 expression; for <1% expression, it was 41% (95% CI: 22%-62%) for primary vs. 58% (95% CI: 35%-78%) for LCBM; for PD-L1 expression of 1–50%, it was 24% (95% CI: 13%-40%) vs. 19% (95% CI: 10%-33%); and for PD-L1 >50% it was 12% (95% CI: 4%-33%) vs. 21% (95% CI: 14%-29%) (p=0.425). The pooled estimate for overall PD-LI receptor discordance between primary and LCBM was 17% (95% CI: 10%-27%). Meta-regression analysis showed that age, sex, smoking status, and histology were not associated with PD-LI receptor discordance.
Conclusions
PD-L1 status discordance in tumor cell occurs in approximately 20% of LCBM, with the greatest discordance in the <1% expression category. Awareness of this discordance is important for the selection of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy as well as in the analysis of patterns of failures.
Preoperative nivolumab to evaluate pathological response in patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer: a study protocol of phase II trial (POTENTIAL)
