Prognostic and clinicopathological significance of PD-1 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis

Objective: We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic and clinicopathological significance of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) expression in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: We searched the Wanfang, Chinese Biomedical Literature, CNKI, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases for relevant articles from inception to 1 July 2020. Statistical analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 (Cochrane, London, UK) and Stata 14.0 software (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, USA).

Results: Eight studies involving 732 patients with HCC were included. Higher expression of PD-1 predicted longer disease-free survival [hazard ratio (HR) 0.53, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.38-0.72]. No significant correlation was observed between PD-1 expression and overall survival (HR 0.89, 95% CI: 0.58-1.35). PD-1 expression was correlated with age [odds ratio (OR) 0.66, 95% CI: 0.46-0.94] and alpha-fetoprotein level (OR 2.27, 95% CI: 1.45-3.55); no correlation was observed with sex, tumor size, tumor metastasis, hepatitis B virus history, tumor stage, or tumor multiplicity. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated no excessive effect on stability of the pooled results. No significant publication bias was found among the identified studies.

Conclusion: PD-1 overexpression predicted better disease-free survival in patients with HCC. Moreover, PD-1 expression was associated with age and alpha-fetoprotein level.