Immunological markers predict the prognosis of patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer has become the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. However, treatment failures still represent enormous challenges, and it is doubtful whether standard treatment modalities could continuously achieve substantial improvements. As one of the novel therapy strategies, PD-L1 has been shown the function of down-regulating T cell activation through receptor PD-1. Moreover, prognosis of cancer patients is based not only on tumor-related factors but also on host-related factors, particularly systemic inflammatory response. Significantly, squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) revealed to be divergent clinical and molecular phenotypes compared with non-squamous NSCLC. Monocyte ratio, neutrophils to lymphocytes ratio, PD-L1 immunostaining score and PD-1-positive stained tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte counts were assessed by Fisher's linear discriminant analysis to discriminate whether overall survival (OS) would exceeding 5 years. Finally, a prediction model was established for OS based on these immunological markers. Furthermore, this prediction model was validated in a second set of squamous NSCLC patients. The model offers a novel tool for survival prediction and could have important clinical implications for patients with squamous NSCLC, thus providing a framework for future individualized therapy.