Whole body PD-1 and PD-L1 positron emission tomography in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer.
A N NiemeijerD LeungM C HuismanI BahceO S HoekstraG A M S van DongenR BoellaardS DuW HayesR SmithAlbert D WindhorstN H HendrikseA PootD J VugtsE ThunnissenP MorinD LipovsekD J DonnellyS J BonacorsiL M VelasquezTanja D de GruijlE F SmitA J de LangenPublished in: Nature communications (2018)
PD-L1 immunohistochemistry correlates only moderately with patient survival and response to PD-(L)1 treatment. Heterogeneity of tumor PD-L1 expression might limit the predictive value of small biopsies. Here we show that tumor PD-L1 and PD-1 expression can be quantified non-invasively using PET-CT in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. Whole body PD-(L)1 PET-CT reveals significant tumor tracer uptake heterogeneity both between patients, as well as within patients between different tumor lesions.