Expression and clinical significance of PD-L1 and BRAF expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

The prognostic value of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and BRAF expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is not well-defined. In this study we investigated alterations in PD-L1, BRAF and EGFR by using immunohistochemistry analysis in a cohort of consecutively enrolled NPC patients.

A retrospective review of 154 NPC patients form our previous study (BMC Cancer. 2013; 13:226) were conducted. Survival and prognostic impacts were analyzed based on PD-L1, BRAF and EGFR expression levels.

One hundred fifty four patients were included in this study. PD-L1 expression was detected in 87.7% of patients; 14.3% had 1-5% PD-L1 expression, 47.4% had 5-49% expression while 26% had ≥50% expression Higher PD-L1 expression was significantly associated with shorter PFS and OS. The median PFS was 25 months (95% CI 15.7-34.3 months) and OS was 35 months (95% CI 22.60-47.4 months) for patients with PD-L1 expression ≥50%; both median PFS and OS were not yet reached for patients with PD-L1 expression < 50%. PFS was significantly higher in BRAF mutation positive patients (5-year PFS: 55.1% vs. 30.8%, P = 0.044).

Tumor PD-L1 expression and BRAF mutation are associated with poor outcomes in patients with NPC. This study was retrospectively registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03989297) on 2019-6-18.