Predictive biomarkers for PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

Checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis (CIP) is a severe immune-related adverse event that can progress rapidly and seriously impair the prognosis of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and biomarkers for the early prediction of CIP is of great value for improving patient prognosis. In this study, we enrolled 22 patients with advanced NSCLC who were preparing to receive PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy and collected their serum prior to immunotherapy.

After PD-1/PD-L1 administration, 14 patients who developed CIP were retrospectively assigned to the pneumonitis group, while 8 patients who did not develop CIP were assigned to the control group. Using serum samples collected before PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy by liquid chromatography‒mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based proteomics, we detected and screened more than 73 potentially differentially expressed proteins between patients developed CIP and did not develop CIP. All these potential differentially expressed proteins could be validated for researchers with similar interests in CIP.