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Programmed death ligand‐1 expression levels, clinicopathologic features, and survival in surgically resected sarcomatoid lung carcinoma
Author(s) -
Ağaçkıran Yetkin,
Aksu Funda,
Akyürek Nalan,
Ercan Caner,
Demiröz Mustafa,
Aksu Kurtuluş
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of clinical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1743-7563
pISSN - 1743-7555
DOI - 10.1111/ajco.13460
Subject(s) - sarcomatoid carcinoma , carcinosarcoma , pathology , spindle cell carcinoma , lung , immunohistochemistry , carcinoma , medicine , proportional hazards model , pathological , survival analysis , survival rate , oncology
Aim To determine the programmed death ligand‐1 (PD‐L1) expression rates in sarcomatoid lung carcinomas and to compare clinicopathologic features and survival rates of PD‐L1‐positive and negative patients. Methods PD‐L1 expression was evaluated in 65 surgically resected sarcomatoid carcinomas. The clinicopathologic features of cases with PD‐L1‐positive and negative tumors were compared. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was performed. Multiple Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was performed to determine independent predictors of overall survival. Results PD‐L1 antibody positivity was found in 72.3% of surgically resected sarcomatoid lung carcinomas. Regarding histopathologic subtypes, PD‐L1 expression was positive in 80.4% of pleomorphic carcinomas, 62.5% of spindle‐ and/or giant‐cell carcinomas, and 16.7% of carcinosarcomas. Pleural invasion was observed in 68.1% of PD‐L1‐positive cases and 27.8% of PD‐L1‐negative cases ( P = 0.008). No difference in survival was found between PD‐L1‐positive and ‐negative tumors. The only factor significantly associated with poor survival was the pathological stage of the tumor. Conclusions This study reveals a high rate of PD‐L1 positivity in a large number of sarcomatoid lung carcinoma cases with pleomorphic carcinoma, spindle‐ and/or giant‐cell carcinoma, and carcinosarcoma subtypes. The only significantly different clinicopathologic feature in PD‐L1‐positive cases is pleural invasion. PD‐L1 positivity is not a significant predictor of survival in sarcomatoid lung carcinomas.