Validation of the immunohistochemical expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) on cytological smears in advanced non small cell lung cancer

Introduction The assessment of PD-L1 expression by immunohistochemistry is mandatory for the administration as first-line therapy of the anti PD-1 check-point inhibitor Pembrolizumab in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Currently, only formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples are acceptable for PD-L1 immunostaining with the anti-PD-L1 antibodies 22-C3 and SP263. We investigated retrospectively the accuracy of the anti...