ArticleCancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII2026
Circulating sPD-L1 as a tumor microenvironment-derived biomarker: enhancing diagnostic discrimination accuracy in breast cancer.
Article in Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) plays a pivotal role in breast cancer immune evasion, yet tissue-based detection suffers from invasiveness and spatial heterogeneity. This study investigated circulating soluble PD-L1 (sPD-L1) as a non-invasive alternative for tumor microenvironment (TME) assessment and breast cancer diagnosis. Serum sPD-L1 levels were evaluated in healthy and breast-affected populations, with correlations assessed against inflammatory markers and clinicopathological parameters. Diagnostic performance of sPD-L1 was compared to conventional biomarkers using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Cellular-level interactions were investigated by quantifying sPD-L1 and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in culture supernatants. Circulating sPD-L1 expression was significantly elevated in breast cancer versus healthy controls and benign cases, with notably higher levels observed in advanced stages and distant-metastatic cases. Moderate correlations were observed between serum sPD-L1 and various inflammatory indicators. Specifically, ROC curve analysis identified an optimal diagnostic cut-off value of 1.144 ng/mL for sPD-L1, with its discriminative power outperforming conventional biomarkers such as CEA and CA15-3. In vitro, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) co-cultured with breast cancer cells showed enhanced sPD-L1 and IL-6 secretion versus normal epithelial cell co-cultures, with parallel sPD-L1/IL-6 elevation. This coordinated induction was clinically validated by a positive serum sPD-L1/IL-6 correlation. In conclusion, circulating sPD-L1 represents a promising non-invasive biomarker reflecting TME and disease progression, supporting its potential utility for breast cancer diagnostic discrimination.
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.