Clinical significance of soluble programmed cell death-1 and soluble programmed cell death-ligand 1 in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.

BackgroundInhibition of the programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) axis in combination with radiotherapy may be a promising approach to treat cancer. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate serum soluble PD-1/PD-L1 levels in patients with advanced rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT).MethodsSerum soluble PD-L1 and PD-1 levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay before and after CRT in 117 patients with low rectal cancer. Changes in the levels of sPD-L1/PD-1 after CRT, and the correlation between sPD-L1/PD-1 level and clinicopathological characteristics or disease-free survival (DFS) were evaluated.ResultssPD-L1 levels significantly increased after CRT (p ConclusionsSignificant increase of sPD-L1 levels after CRT suggests that anti-PD-L1 therapy might be a potential treatment strategy in combination with CRT in advanced rectal cancer