Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32489322›Full record

ArticleCancer cell international2020

Heterogeneous programmed death-ligand 1 expression in gastric cancer: comparison of tissue microarrays and whole sections.

Min Ye, Dan Huang, Qiongyan Zhang, Weiwei Weng, Cong Tan, Guangqi Qin, Wenhua Jiang, Weiqi Sheng, Lei Wang

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In one paragraph

Article in Cancer cell international, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
37citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

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  9. Biomarkers in gastroesophageal cancer 2025: an updated consensus statement by the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) and the Spanish Society of Pathology (SEAP).Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Min Ye *Department of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai, 200032 China.
Dan Huang *Department of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai, 200032 China.
Qiongyan ZhangDepartment of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032 China.
Weiwei WengDepartment of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai, 200032 China.
Cong TanDepartment of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai, 200032 China.
Guangqi QinDepartment of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai, 200032 China.
Wenhua JiangDepartment of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai, 200032 China.
Weiqi ShengDepartment of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai, 200032 China.
Lei WangDepartment of Pathology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai, 200032 China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundProgrammed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression determines the eligibility for anti-PD-1 treatment in patients with advanced gastric cancer, but evidence indicates that PD-L1 staining is heterogeneous. Patients who are ineligible for radical surgery could be tested for PD-L1 expression with biopsy staining, but it is unclear if a small biopsy is representative of the PD-L1 status of the whole tumor. The aim of our study was to determine how many biopsy specimens are needed to accurately reflect the objective status of PD-L1 expression in whole sections.

methodsWe built tissue microarrays (TMAs) as substitutes for core biopsies, collecting 6 cores per case from 152 gastric cancer specimens. All of the slides and TMAs underwent PD-L1 immunohistochemical staining, and PD-L1 expression in at least 1% of tumor cells or immune cells was defined as positive.

resultsIt was necessary to randomly select multiple cores from TMAs to reach a suitable agreement rate (> 90%) and Cohen's κ value (> 0.8) between TMAs and whole sections. We defined the PD-L1 staining status from the whole section as the standard. The evaluation of five randomly selected cores from TMAs agreed well with the evaluation of whole sections. The sensitivity, specificity and the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) were 0.93, 0.92, and 0.922 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.863-0.982), respectively.

conclusionsWe conclude that PD-L1 expression among TMA samples had different degrees of relevance to the corresponding surgical specimens, which indicates that at least five biopsies might be necessary to characterize patients taking anti-PD-1 treatment.

Indexed as

Biopsy specimenGastric cancerHeterogeneityPD-L1Surgical specimenTissue microarray

Identifiers

PMID32489322
PMCPMC7247123

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