PD-L1 Expression Associated with Epstein—Barr Virus Status and Patients’ Survival in a Large Cohort of Gastric Cancer Patients in Northern Brazil

Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is a worldwide health problem, making it one of the most common types of cancer, in fifth place of all tumor types, and the third highest cause of cancer deaths in the world. There is a subgroup of GC that consists of tumors infected with the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and is characterized mainly by the overexpression of programmed cell death protein-ligand-1 (PD-L1). In the present study, we present histopathological and survival data of a thousand GC patients, associated with EBV status and PD-L1 expression. Of the thousand tumors analyzed, 190 were EBV-positive and the vast majority (86.8%) had a high relative expression of mRNA and PD-L1 protein (p < 0.0001) in relation to non-neoplastic control. On the other hand, in EBV-negative samples, the majority had a low PD-L1 expression of RNA and protein (p < 0.0001). In the Kaplan–Meier analysis, the probability of survival and increased overall survival of EBV-positive GC patients was impacted by the PD-L1 overexpression (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.004, respectively). However, the PD-L1 low expression was correlated with low overall survival in those patients. Patients with GC positive for EBV, presenting PD-L1 overexpression can benefit from immunotherapy treatments and performing the quantification of PD-L1 in gastric neoplasms should be adopted as routine.