PD-L1 assessment in lung cancer biopsies—pitfalls and limitations
Daniela Gompelmann, Pavla Sarova, Berta Mosleh, Anastasia Papaporfyriou, Felicitas Oberndorfer, Marco Idzko, Mir Alireza Hoda
Abstract
The programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein expression on tumor cells predicts the efficacy of immunotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. However, the assessment of PD-L1 expression on tumor cells has limited power for selecting patients for immunotherapy due to intra-tumoral heterogeneity and inter-tumoral heterogeneity of PD-L1 expression, the inter-observer variability in scoring PD-L1 staining, and reproducibility. These difficulties and pitfalls in interpreting the PD-L1 assessment are discussed in detail in this review.
Topics & Concepts
ImmunotherapyLung cancerMedicinePD-L1CancerOncologyProtein expressionCancer researchPathologyInternal medicineBiologyGeneBiochemistryCancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersLung Cancer Treatments and MutationsLung Cancer Research Studies