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. 2024 Apr 1;134(7):e168318. doi: 10.1172/JCI168318

Figure 3. Soluble immune factors complement the predictive ability of tPD-L1 expression for advanced NSCLC patients treated with nivolumab in the Nivolution trial.

Figure 3

(A–C) Pearson correlation analysis for pretreatment plasma concentrations of sPD-L1 (A), sPD-1 (B), sCTLA-4 (C), and tPD-L1 expression level (PD-L1 TPS) (n = 50). (D–F) Comparison of sPD-L1 (D), sPD-1 (E), and sCTLA-4 (F) concentrations between patients with a DCB (n = 10) or NCB (n = 27) among individuals with a tPD-L1 expression level of < 50%. *P < 0.05 (Mann-Whitney U test). (G–I) Kaplan-Meier curves for PFS of patients with a tPD-L1 expression level of < 50% according to high or low levels of each soluble immune factor based on the determined cutoff values. For sPD-L1 (high, n = 21; low, n = 16), median PFS was 8.7 versus 2.7 months for low and high sPD-L1, respectively (log-rank P = 0.001), with an HR of 0.30 (95% CI, 0.14–0.64) (G). For sPD-1 (high, n = 20; low, n = 17), median PFS was 7.8 versus 2.4 months for low and high sPD-1, respectively (log-rank P = 0.003), with an HR of 0.34 (95% CI, 0.16–0.71) (H). For sCTLA-4 (high, n = 14; low, n = 23), median PFS was 7.1 versus 2.4 months for low and high sCTLA-4, respectively (log-rank P = 0.004), with an HR of 0.36 (95% CI, 0.17–0.75) (I). (J–L) Kaplan-Meier curves for PFS of patients with a tPD-L1 expression level of ≥ 50% according to high or low levels of each soluble immune factor based on the determined cutoff values. For sPD-L1 (high, n = 8; low, n = 5), median PFS was not reached versus 11.0 months for low and high sPD-L1, respectively (log-rank P = 0.023), with an HR of 0.01 (95% CI, 0.00–19.61) (J). For sPD-1 (high, n = 8; low, n = 5), median PFS was 5.7 months versus not reached for low and high sPD-1, respectively (log-rank P = 0.49), with an HR of 1.88 (95% CI, 0.31–11.32) (K). For sCTLA-4 (high, n = 7; low, n = 6), median PFS was not reached versus 12.7 months for low and high sCTLA-4, respectively (log-rank P = 0.16), with an HR of 0.23 (95% CI, 0.03–2.14) (L). (M and N) Kaplan-Meier curves for PFS among patients with tPD-L1 expression levels of < 50% (M) or ≥ 50% (N) according to the number of favorable immune factors defined as sCTLA-4 or sPD-L1 concentrations below the cutoff values (log-rank P = 0.0002 and 0.18, respectively). Median PFS was 5.1, 2.2, and 1.4 months for 2, 1, and 0 favorable factors, respectively, in (M), and not reached, not reached, and 11.0 months, respectively, in (N). The HR for 1 (n = 11 and 3) versus 0 (n = 12 and 6) was 0.28 (95% CI, 0.10–0.76) and 0.44 (95% CI, 0.05–3.97), and that for 2 (n = 14 and 4) versus 0 was 0.20 (95% CI, 0.10–0.76) and 0.01 (95% CI, 0.00–45.45), in (M) and (N), respectively.