The prognostic impact of PD1 and PDL1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer

Introduction: To improve the prognosis of lung cancer patients, immunotherapy is expected to become a powerful therapeutic option. Several clinical studies demonstrate a positive prognostic effect of a targeted therapy against the programmed cell death receptor PD1 and its ligand PDL1 in solid tumors. For non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) however, the diagnostic, prognostic and predictive impact of these factors needs to be clarified. Materials and Methods: Immunohistochemistry was performed to evaluate the expression profile of PD1 and PDL1 in 398 NSCLC patients (median age: 66 years, 78% male sex, 45% squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) histology). Statistical analysis included Fisher9s Exact test,…