Skip to main content

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Hematologic Malignancies
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1506799
This article is part of the Research Topic Overcoming Resistance of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors View all articles

Prognostic and clinicopathological role of soluble programmed cell death ligand-1 in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: a meta-analysis

Provisionally accepted
Hongbin Lu Hongbin Lu 1Lulu Luo Lulu Luo 1Jie Mi Jie Mi 1Min Sun Min Sun 1Huaping Wang Huaping Wang 1Zheng Wang Zheng Wang 2Wenwen Ding Wenwen Ding 1*
  • 1 Wuxi Branch of Ruijin Hospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Wuxi, China
  • 2 Suzhou Jsuniwell Medical Laboratory, Suzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: The significance of soluble programmed death protein ligand-1 (PD-L1) in predicting the prognosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has been previously analyzed, but with conflicting results. This study investigated the effect of soluble PD-L1 (sPD-L1) expression on the prognosis of patients with DLBCL. Methods: We comprehensively searched the Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and CNKI databases between their inception and August 14, 2024. The value of sPD-L1 in predicting the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with DLBCL was analyzed by computing the combined hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Associations between sPD-L1 and the clinicopathological factors of DLBCL were explored by combining odds ratios (ORs) and 95%CIs. Results: Seven articles involving 826 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Based on our pooled data, elevated sPD-L1 was closely related to poor OS (HR = 2.81, 95%CI = 1.99–3.95, p < 0.001) and inferior PFS (HR = 3.16, 95%CI = 1.41–7.08, p = 0.005) of DLBCL. Moreover, based on the pooled data, higher sPD-L1 was significantly related to the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status Scale (ECOG PS) ≥2 (OR=4.10, 95%CI=1.82-9.24, p=0.001), clinical stage III-IV (OR = 3.30, 95%CI = 1.48–7.39, p = 0.004), elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels (OR = 2.14, 95%CI = 1.07–4.30, p = 0.032), and the International Prognostic Index (IPI) score 3–5 (OR = 3.83, 95%CI = 1.91–7.68, p < 0.001) in DLBCL. Conclusion: According to our findings, a higher sPD-L1 level was a significant predictor of poor OS and PFS in patients with DLBCL. Elevated sPD-L1 levels are closely related to factors representing disease aggressiveness in DLBCL.

    Keywords: PD-L1, circulating, Survival, biomarker, Meta-analysis

    Received: 06 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Lu, Luo, Mi, Sun, Wang, Wang and Ding. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wenwen Ding, Wuxi Branch of Ruijin Hospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Wuxi, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.