Background/aim: To investigate the role of programmed cell death-ligand 2 (PD-L2) expression as a predictive biomarker for response to anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) drugs in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Patients and methods: Ten patients who had undergone curative lung resection and received the anti-PD-1 drugs for the recurrence were enrolled. The cut-off value for PD-L2 (antibody clone 176611) expression on tumor cells was set at 50%. Tumor response was evaluated according to immune-related response criteria.
Results: Seven patients (70.0%) were positive for PD-L2. The response rates were 28.6% (2/7) and 33.3% (1/3) in patients with PD-L2-positive and PD-L2-negative NSCLC, respectively. Disease control was obtained in 2 patients despite the programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)-negativity (antibody clone 22C3: 0%, antibody clone SP142: 0%), and these tumors expressed PD-L2 (≥1%).
Conclusion: PD-L2 expression may be a target of immunotherapy in patients with PD-L1-negative NSCLC.
Keywords: Programmed cell death-ligand 1; non-small cell lung cancer; programmed cell death-ligand 2.
Copyright© 2018, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.