Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the clinical significance of deglycosylated PD-L1 level and its correlation with EGFR and ALK mutation in lung adenocarcinoma.
Materials and Methods: We estimated the intensity of both native and deglycosylated PD-L1 signals using a 28– 8 antibody on lung adenocarcinoma tissue microarray sections. We analyzed the difference in the H-score between tumor and paratumor tissues, as well as that before and after deglycosylation. Correlations between EGFR or ALK status and PD-L1 expression were analyzed. We also evaluated the differences among survival curves.
Results: The expression level of PD-L1 in lung adenocarcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that in paratumor tissues (P< 0.0001). Deglycosylation significantly enhanced the detection of PD-L1 in tumor tissues (P< 0.0001). There was no statistical significance between the signal intensity of deglycosylated PD-L1 and the survival of patients (P=0.9099). However, the response to deglycosylation of PD-L1 was significantly correlated with the survival of patients with stage N1-N3 (P=0.0435) and stage T3-T4 (P=0.0366) and male patients (P=0.0258). A statistical trend was found in the correlation between the response to deglycosylation of PD-L1 and the survival of patients with grade II–III plus grade III (P=0.0973). Correlation between EGFR or ALK status and the expression of PD-L1 was not found (P> 0.05).
Conclusion: PD-L1 deglycosylation enhances the detection of PD-L1 when utilizing a 28– 8 antibody. Moreover, the response to deglycosylation of PD-L1 may predict the survival of certain patients with lung adenocarcinoma.
Keywords: programmed death ligand 1, deglycosylation, lung adenocarcinoma, mutation, survival