ArticleCancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII2025
Ki-67 expression stratifies PD-L1-high NSCLC for immune checkpoint inhibitor plus chemotherapy: a real-world biomarker validation.
Article in Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Targeting the Tumor Microenvironment Network to Overcome Immunotherapy Resistance in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Mechanisms to Clinical Translation.Cancer medicine · 2026Review
- The Prognostic Impact of the Ki-67 Proliferation Index in Patients with Surgically Treated Spinal Metastases.Cancers · 2026Article
- Predictive value of Ki-67 expression in predicting pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy in lung squamous cell carcinoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFor patients with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)-high non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), both immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) monotherapy and ICI plus chemotherapy are first-line options, yet optimal subgroups for each remain undefined. We evaluated Ki-67 expression as a biomarker for treatment stratification.
methodsWe retrospectively analyzed 334 advanced PD-L1-high NSCLC cases (2018-2024). Patients were stratified by Ki-67 expression, and outcomes with ICI monotherapy versus ICI-chemotherapy were compared using propensity score matching and multivariable Cox models.
resultsAfter propensity score matching, in the Ki-67 > 30% cohort (n = 166), ICI-chemotherapy was associated with a higher ORR versus ICI monotherapy (32/83, 38.6% vs. 17/83, 20.5%; P = 0.01) and with longer PFS (9.9 vs. 8.4 months; HR 0.51, 95% CI 0.37-0.72; P < 0.001) and OS (22.1 vs. 16.5 months; HR 0.47, 95% CI 0.32-0.70; P < 0.001). In the Ki-67 ≤ 30% cohort (n = 78), ORR was identical (9/39, 23.1%), and no improvement was observed for PFS (8.3 vs. 9.1 months; HR 1.59, 95% CI 0.98-2.59; P = 0.06) or OS (15.7 vs. 20.3 months; HR 1.47, 95% CI 0.85-2.54; P = 0.16). Patients receiving ICI-chemotherapy had more grade ≥ 3 adverse events (40/157, 25.5% vs. 24/177, 13.6%), predominantly hematologic (30/157, 19.1% vs. 3/177, 1.7%).
conclusionKi-67 expression may represent a potential predictive biomarker for identifying PD-L1-high NSCLC patients more likely to benefit from chemo-immunotherapy, though its clinical utility requires confirmation in prospective, randomized studies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.