Comparison of PD-L1 Expression Status between Pure-Solid Versus Part-Solid Lung Adenocarcinomas

Although lung adenocarcinomas (LADs) with ground-glass opacity (GGO; part-solid tumors) have been shown to differ from those without GGO (pure-solid tumors) in clinicopathological features and prognoses, whether programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) protein expression differs between these two tumor types is unclear. This study included 124 patients with clinical T1a–c LAD who received pulmonary resections during 2007–2009. The E1L3N antibody was used to stain for PD-L1 in primary LAD specimens. The specimens were considered PD-L1+ if ≥1% of tumor cells showed membrane staining, and were classified as having a high PD-L1+ tumor proportion score (TPS) if ≥50% of the tumor cells did so. Among the 124 patients, 45 had part-solid tumors and 79 had pure-solid tumors. These two groups did not significantly differ in terms of clinical factors. However, the rates for PD-L1 positivity (4% vs. 25%, p < 0.01) and high PD-L1+ TPS (2% vs. 16%, p = 0.02) were significantly higher in the pure-solid tumors. The multivariate analyses (logistic regression model) showed that the odds ratios for PD-L1 positivity and high PD-L1+ TPS in pure-solid LADs were 5.9 (95% CI; 1.2–29.7) and 8.0 (95% CI; 1.0–63.8), respectively. In conclusion, LADs with GGO were correlated with a lower incidence of PD-L1 expression than pure-solid tumors.