High PD-L1 expression was associated with poor prognosis in 870 Chinese patients with breast cancer.
BACKGROUND
To investigate the role of PD-L1 expression in tumor recurrence and metastasis in Chinese patients with breast cancer.


METHODS
Suitable tissue samples were available from 870 patients with breast cancer. Paraffin-embedded tumor sections were stained with PD-L1 antibody. The correlations between PD-L1 expression and clinical characteristics, ER/PR/HER2 status and survival parameters were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier and univariate Cox proportional hazards model analyses were used to compare the survival of patients with high PD-L1 expression and patients with no PD-L1 expression.


RESULTS
The median follow-up time was 98 months(range, 17-265 months).The positive rate of PD-L1 expression in breast cancer was 21.7% (189/870). PD-L1 high expression was inversely associated with larger tumor size, higher tumor grade, more positive lymph node number, as well as negative ER and PR status. PD-L1 expression was particularly higher in TNBC compared with non-TNBC, although no statistical significance was observed. Nomogram logistic regression results based on clinical and pathological features showed that the following factors were more likely associated with high PD-L1 expression: patient age younger than 35 years, larger tumor size, lymphovascular invasion and advanced stage. Our data indicated that patients with high PD-L1 expression had poor DFS, DMFS and overall survival compared with those with no PD-L1 expression. Univariate Cox proportional hazards model analysis showed that PD-L1 was an independent prognostic factor for tumor prognosis.


CONCLUSIONS
PD-L1 expression is an important indicator of unfavorable prognosis in breast cancer patients.
['Qin|Tao|T|', 'Zeng|Yin-duo|YD|', 'Qin|Ge|G|', 'Xu|Fei|F|', 'Lu|Jia-bin|JB|', 'Fang|Wen-feng|WF|', 'Xue|Cong|C|', 'Zhan|Jian-hua|JH|', 'Zhang|Xin-ke|XK|', 'Zheng|Qiu-fan|QF|', 'Peng|Rou-jun|RJ|', 'Yuan|Zhong-yu|ZY|', 'Zhang|Li|L|', 'Wang|Shu-sen|SS|']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D060890:B7-H1 Antigen D001943:Breast Neoplasms D002681:China D018572:Disease-Free Survival D005260:Female D005500:Follow-Up Studies D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic D006801:Humans D007150:Immunohistochemistry D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis D008875:Middle Aged D015999:Multivariate Analysis D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local D049451:Nomograms D011379:Prognosis D016016:Proportional Hazards Models D012044:Regression Analysis D016896:Treatment Outcome D055815:Young Adult
PD-L1 prognosis breast cancer ER/PR nomogram