High Serum PD-L1 Levels Are Associated with Poor Survival in Urothelial Cancer Patients Treated with Chemotherapy and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy

Serum PD-L1 (sPD-L1) levels are associated with prognosis in various tumors but has not yet been investigated advanced bladder cancer. We assessed pretreatment serum samples from 83 BC patients who received platinum chemotherapy and 12 underwent immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. In addition, on-treatment further therapy cycles were collected during (n = 58) ICI 11). determined using ELISA. High baseline sPD-L1 worse ECOG status (p 0.007) shorter overall survival for both chemotherapy- ICI-treated 0.002 p 0.040, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed high level as an independent predictor of poor platinum-treated 0.002). A correlation between concentrations matrix metalloprotease-7 (MMP-7)—a protease which was recently found to cleave PD-L1—revealed a positive 0.001). No significant changes detected chemotherapy, while contrast we strong, 25-fold increase atezolizumab treatment. conclusion, our work demonstrates that undergoing Future research should prospectively address the value predicting treatment response.