69 Background: The study explored the prognostic impacts of clinical parameters including neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in recurrent/metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (R/M ESCC) patients receiving anti-programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1)/PD ligand 1 (PD-L1)-based therapy. Methods: Thirty-eight patients were enrolled. Tumor response evaluation was made according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours 1.1, and the clinical benefit response (CBR) was defined as complete response, partial response or stable disease at least 6 months. Clinical factors were analyzed for their impacts on patients' overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues from 8 patients were analyzed by NanoString nCounter Human PanCancer Immune Profiling (NanoString Technologies, Seattle, WA, US). Results: Twenty-six recurrent and 12 de novo metastatic ESCC patients were enrolled. The response rate is 11.8%, and the CBR rate was 21.1%. The median PFS and OS are 2.7 and 5.5 months, respectively. The CBR group has lower blood white blood cells (WBC) ( P = 0.029), monocytes (p = 0.003), and NLR (p = 0.005). In univariate analysis, WBC, neutrophils, and NLR were statistically associated with PFS; performance status (PS), disease extent, albumin, WBC, neutrophils, and NLR were statistically associated with OS. In multivariate analysis, NLR (p = 0.007) was statistically associated with PFS; PS (p = 0.029) and NLR (p = 0.050) were statistically associated with OS. On examining the immune-related genes in ESCC tissues’ microenvironment, the ratios of mast cells, neutrophils, and macrophages relative to tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have significantly lower in the CBR group than in the non-CBR group. Conclusions: High NLR was associated with inferior prognosis in R/M ESCC patients receiving anti-PD-1/PD-L1-based therapy. The increased ratio of neutrophil to TILs in the ESCC tumor microenvironment of non-CBR patients may suggest a mechanistic role of neutrophils in affecting the efficacy of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy. (Supported by the grant of MOST 105-2314-B-002 -186 -MY3)
Prognostic impact of PD-L1 expression in correlation with neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in squamous cell carcinoma of the lung
