Association of Programmed Death‐Ligand 1 Expression with Fusion Variants and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase‐Positive Lung Adenocarcinoma Receiving Crizotinib

Background. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is associated with clinical outcomes of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutant lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). However, whether PD-L1 expression plays a role in anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)- positive lung ADC is unknown. We aimed to evaluate the impact of PD-L1 in patients with ALK-positive lung ADC receiv- ing crizotinib.
Materials and Methods. PD-L1 expression was identified by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was used for ALK variant detection, and immunofluorescence-based multiplex staining was applied for exploring immune cells in tumor microenvironments.
Results. A total of 78 patients with ALK-positive advanced ADC were enrolled in our study, of whom 52 received crizotinib. Compared with EGFR/ALK wild-type tumors, PD-L1 expression was lower in ALK-positive ADC. ALK fusion variants
were identified in 32 patients, and those with ..... READ ARTICLE

The Oncologist DOI:10.1634/theoncologist.2020-0088

Authors: CHING-YAO YANG, WEI-YU LIAO, CHAO-CHI HO, KUAN-YU CHEN, TZU-HSIU TSAI, CHIA-LIN HSU, YI-NAN LIU, KANG-YI SU, YIH-LEONG CHANG, CHEN-TU WU, BIN-CHI LIAO, CHIA-CHI HSU, WEI-HSUN HSU, JIH-HSIANG LEE, CHIA-CHI LIN, JIN-YUAN SHIH, JAMES CHIH-HSIN YANG, CHONG-JEN YU