A Real-world Study on the Expression Characteristics of PD-L1 in Patients 
with Advanced EGFR Positive NSCLC and Its Relationship with the 
Therapeutic Efficacy of EGFR-TKIs

Abstract

Background and objective Epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) is the first choice for first-line treatment of advanced patients with EGFR positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). For advanced NSCLC patients with negative drive gene and positive programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) or highly expressed NSCLC patients, the first-line treatment recommends immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) monotherapy or ICIs combined chemotherapy. Therefore, the first-line treatment strategy for advanced NSCLC patients with EGFR positive at different PD-L1 expression levels is worth further exploring. Many previous studies have suggested that the expression of PD-L1 is obviously affected by EGFR mutation, and the expression of PD-L1 is likely to be related to the mechanism of EGFR-TKIs resistance. The purpose of this study was to analyze the expression characteristics of PD-L1 in patients with advanced EGFR positive NSCLC and its relationship with the efficacy of EGFR-TKIs. Methods 159 patients with newly diagnosed advanced NSCLC with EGFR positive (including 141 patients with EGFR sensitive mutations) were enrolled to analyze the relationship between clinicopathological characteristics and PD-L1 expression. The factors affecting the therapeutic effect of EGFR-TKIs in 141 patients with EGFR sensitive mutations were also explored. Results The PD-L1 expression of the included patients was classified according to the tumor promotion score (TPS): negative (TPS<1%) accounted for 47.2%, low expression (1%≤TPS<50%) accounted for 32.1%, and high expression (TPS≥50%) accounted for 20.7%. Among them, patients with solid predominant cancer cell pathomorphology classification are more likely to have high expression of PD-L1, accounting for 52.9% (P<0.0001). The median progression-free survival (mPFS) of patients with PD-L1 negative expression, low expression and high expression who received first generation EGFR-TKIs treatment were 12.4 months, 10.5 months and 3.7 months, respectively, with significant statistical difference (P<0.0001). During the EGFR-TKIs treatment, patients with a history of radiotherapy for lung lesions have a longer PFS benefit than those without a history of radiotherapy (mPFS: 17.0 months vs 9.3 months, P<0.0001). Conclusion The expression level of PD-L1 in advanced EGFR positive NSCLC patients was significantly correlated with the pathomorphology classification of cancer cells. The efficacy of EGFR-TKIs in patients with PD-L1 overexpression NSCLC was significantly poor. PFS can be significantly prolonged during targeted therapy combined with radiotherapy of lung lesions.

Keywords

• lung neoplasms
• epidermal growth factor receptor mutation
• programmed cell death ligand 1 expression
• targeted treatment