Positive PD-L1 expression is predictive for patients with advanced EGFR wild-type non-small cell lung cancer treated with gemcitabine and cisplatin

This retrospective study aimed to investigate the association between programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) wild-type non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The predictive role and cut-off value of PD-L1 expression was subsequently investigated. A total of 172 patients with advanced EGFR wild-type NSCLC were enrolled. All patients received platinum-based doublet chemotherapy (gemcitabine plus cisplatin). PD-L1 expression in lung tissues was assessed using immunohistochemical methods. The χ(2) test was used to analyze the association between PD-L1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics. Survival time analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method. The two groups, positive PD-L1 expression and negative PD-L1 expression, were compared using the log-rank test. Multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazard regression model was conducted to determine prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) times. Positive PD-L1 expression was observed in 48.3% (84/172), 40.7% (70/172), 21.5% (37/172) and 8.1% (14/172) of patients when using cut-off values of 1, 5, 10 and 50%, respectively. The χ(2) test revealed that elevated pretreatment C-reactive protein (CRP) level and cancer stage IV were significantly associated with positive PD-L1 expression. The OS and PFS of positive PD-L1 (1, 5, 10 and 50% cut-off) expression group were shorter compared with the negative PD-L1 (1, 5, 10 and 50% cut-off) expression group. Multivariate survival analysis revealed that PD-L1 expression ≥50% was significantly associated with decreased OS and PFS [OS time, P=0.001; hazard ratio (HR), 2.768; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.551–4.940; PFS time, P=0.002; HR, 2.537; 95% CI, 1.423–4.524]. These results indicated that positive PD-L1 (50% cut-off) expression was an independent predictor of poor prognosis for patients with advanced NSCLC treated with gemcitabine plus cisplatin. PD-L1 expression was associated with CRP level and cancer stage. The results obtained in the present study suggest that positive PD-L1 expression serves a prognostic role in advanced NSCLC and that the optimal cut-off value may be 50%.