Journal Article

Clinical implications of heterogeneity in PD-L1 immunohistochemical detection in hepatocellular carcinoma: the Blueprint-HCC study

Victor, Stephane, Marafioti, Teresa, Cain, Owen, Pizio, Corinna, Akarca, Ayse U., Black, James R. M., Siddique, Abdul, Spina, Paolo, Goldin, Robert, Pinato, David J., Sharma, Rohini, Boldorini, Renzo L., Mauri, Francesco A., Shetty, Shishir, Mazzucchelli, Luca

2019

Overview

Programmed cell death ligand-1 immunohistochemical detection (PD-L1 IHC) is a putative predictor of response to PD-1/PD-L1-targeted checkpoint inhibitors. However, there is no gold standard assay in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We evaluated 5 PD-L1 IHC assay platforms (E1LN3, 28-8, 22c3, SP263 and SP142) in 100 HCCs reporting PD-L1 expression in malignant (M) and tumour-infiltrating immune cells (TICs) and non-tumorous cirrhotic tissues (NTICs). We found substantial inter-assay heterogeneity in detecting PD-L1 expression in M ( R 2  = 0.080–0.921), TICs (Cohen’s   κ  = 0.175–0.396) and NTICs ( κ  = 0.004–0.505). Such diversity may impact on the reliability and reproducibility of PD-L1 IHC assays as a predictor of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/250/251/1574 / 692/53/2423 / Apoptosis / B7-H1 Antigen - analysis / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Brief Communication / Cancer Research / Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - chemistry / Cell death / Drug Resistance / Epidemiology / Hepatocellular carcinoma / Humans / Immune checkpoint inhibitors / Immunohistochemistry / Liver cancer / Liver Neoplasms - chemistry / Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating - chemistry / Molecular Medicine / Oncology / PD-1 protein / PD-L1 protein / Tumors