# PD-L1 expression in human cancers and its association with clinical outcomes

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-pd-l1-urothelial-onco-targets-ther-2016/  
OnCo record `paper-pd-l1-urothelial-onco-targets-ther-2016` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Review on PD-L1 in Bladder & urothelial cancer, in OncoTargets and therapy (2016), one of the most cited Europe PMC records with PD-L1 in its title.

## Summary

PD-L1 is an immunoinhibitory molecule that suppresses the activation of T cells, leading to the progression of tumors. Overexpression of PD-L1 in cancers such as gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, and bladder cancer is associated with poor clinical outcomes. In contrast, PD-L1 expression correlates with better clinical outcomes in breast cancer and merkel cell carcinoma. The prognostic value of PD-L1 expression in lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and melanoma is controversial. Blocking antibodies that target PD-1 and PD-L1 have achieved remarkable response rates in cancer patients who have PD-L1-overexpressing tumors. However, using PD-L1 as an exclusive predictive biomarker for cancer immunotherapy is questionable due to the low accuracy of PD-L1 immunohistochemistry staining. Factors that affect the accuracy of PD-L1 immunohistochemistry staining are as follows. First, antibodies used in different studies have different sensitivity. Second, in different studies, the cut-off value of PD-L1 staining positivity is different. Third, PD-L1 expression in tumors is not uniform, and sampling time and location may affect the results of PD-L1 staining. Therefore, better understanding of tumor microenvironment and use of other biomarkers such as gene marker and combined index are necessary to better identify patients who will benefit from PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint blockade therapy.

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 27574444 (DOI 10.2147/ott.s105862). Its title names PD-L1 and its text names Bladder & urothelial cancer; PubMed types it as a review (review-article, Review). It was matched automatically to the idea "Anchor a TGF-beta trap in the tumour stroma so it cannot act everywhere" and no figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: OncoTargets and therapy
- Year: 2016
- DOI: 10.2147/ott.s105862
- Authors: Wang X, Teng F, Kong L, et al.
- What it means: One of the most cited reviews Europe PMC returns for PD-L1 in Bladder & urothelial cancer, so it is a natural first reading for anyone weighing the idea it is linked from. The record was linked automatically by title and abstract; read the abstract above and the paper itself before relying on any figure.
- Caveats: Matched by PD-L1 in the title and Bladder & urothelial cancer in the title or abstract of the Europe PMC record; the summary reproduces the record's abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.; A review summarises other studies; the primary reports it cites are the evidence.

## Sources

- Onco Targets Ther 2016: https://doi.org/10.2147/ott.s105862
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27574444/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/27574444

## Connected records

- ideas: [Anchor a TGF-beta trap in the tumour stroma so it cannot act everywhere](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-bio2-tumour-anchored-tgfbeta-trap/)

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