Expression and relationship of PD-L1, CD24, and CD47 in hepatitis B virus associated hepatocellular carcinoma
Aiping Lin, Mingxia Wang, Zhihui Wang, Juan Lin, Zhihui Lin, Shaowei Lin, Shiyun Lu, Honghui Lin, Haijun Tang, Xueping Huang
Abstract
Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy is the new standard treatment for advanced or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, many patients still fail to respond. This study explored the expression and prognosis of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), cluster of differentiation 24 (CD24), and cluster of differentiation 47 (CD47) in patients with hepatitis B virus-associated HCC (HBV-associated HCC). We analyzed sequencing data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and investigated the expression of PD-L1, CD24, and CD47 in HBV-associated HCC patients by immunohistochemistry and their relationship with prognosis and clinicopathological factors. HCC data from the TCGA database show that PD-L1 was substantially correlated with various immune cells. In 67 patients with HBV-associated HCC, high PD-L1 and CD24 expression levels were related to poor overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). PD-L1 expression was significantly associated with the staging of HBV-associated HCC (p = 0.011) and Ki67 expression (p = 0.024). Correlation analysis between variables reveals that PD-L1 was significantly positively correlated with CD24 and CD47. High expression of PD-L1 and CD24 are risk factors for poor prognosis in HBV-associated HCC patients following curative resection. PD-L1 is significantly correlated with CD24 and CD47.