{"entity":{"id":"paper-rimm-pd-l1-assay-comparison-jama-oncol-2017","kind":"paper","name":"A prospective, multi-institutional, pathologist-based assessment of 4 immunohistochemistry assays for PD-L1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer","aka":[],"tldr":"Thirteen pathologists scored four different stains for the same protein on ninety lung cancers. They agreed well on the cancer cells and hardly at all on the immune cells, and one of the four stains consistently read lower than the others.","summary":"Four serial histological sections from 90 archival non-small-cell lung cancers were distributed to three sites, which performed immunohistochemistry with the 28-8 and 22C3 antibodies on the Dako Link 48 platform, SP142 on the Ventana Benchmark platform and E1L3N on the Leica Bond platform. Slides were scanned and scored by 13 pathologists estimating the percentage of malignant and immune cells expressing PD-L1. SP142 was an outlier with significantly lower mean scores in both compartments (tumour cells 1.99 against 2.96 for 22C3, 3.26 for 28-8 and 3.20 for E1L3N). Interassay concordance for tumour-cell scoring was high, 0.813, and low for immune-cell scoring, 0.277.","asOf":"2026-09-25","links":[{"label":"Rimm et al., JAMA Oncol 2017: 13 pathologists scoring four PD-L1 assays on 90 non-small-cell lung cancers","url":"https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2017.0013"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28278348/"}],"tags":[],"related":["pd-l1-tps","pd-l1-tc-score","pd-l1-ic-score"],"cancers":["nsclc"],"sections":[],"technologies":["histopathology-ihc"],"targets":["pdl1"],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["yale-cancer-center","md-anderson"],"pathways":["pd1-checkpoint"],"terms":["ihc"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":["jama-oncology"],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"journal":"JAMA Oncology","year":2017,"doi":"10.1001/jamaoncol.2017.0013","pmid":"28278348","authors":"Rimm DL, Han G, Taube JM, et al.","paperType":"methods","findings":["SP142 gives significantly lower scores than 22C3, 28-8 and E1L3N in both compartments.","28-8 and a laboratory-developed E1L3N test were statistically indistinguishable.","Interassay concordance 0.813 for tumour cells and 0.277 for immune cells.","Pathologist variability is the larger source of error for immune cells."],"whatItMeans":"Together with the Blueprint work it establishes that a PD-L1 percentage reports the assay as much as it reports the tumour, so the threshold and the antibody have to be quoted together.","caveats":["Archival tissue from 2008 to 2010, where antigen may have degraded.","Scoring was on scanned images rather than at the microscope.","A laboratory-developed test was included, which is not equivalent to a regulated assay."],"changedPractice":false,"participants":90},"route":"/key-papers/paper-rimm-pd-l1-assay-comparison-jama-oncol-2017/","neighbours":{"biomarker":[{"id":"pd-l1-ic-score","kind":"biomarker","name":"PD-L1 IC score (immune-cell score, SP142)","route":"/biomarkers/pd-l1-ic-score/"},{"id":"pd-l1-tc-score","kind":"biomarker","name":"PD-L1 TC score (tumour-cell score, SP263 and 28-8)","route":"/biomarkers/pd-l1-tc-score/"},{"id":"pd-l1-tps","kind":"biomarker","name":"PD-L1 TPS (tumour proportion score)","route":"/biomarkers/pd-l1-tps/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"}],"technology":[{"id":"histopathology-ihc","kind":"technology","name":"Histopathology & immunohistochemistry","route":"/technologies/histopathology-ihc/"}],"target":[{"id":"pdl1","kind":"target","name":"PD-L1","route":"/targets/pdl1/"}],"institution":[{"id":"md-anderson","kind":"institution","name":"MD Anderson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/md-anderson/"},{"id":"yale-cancer-center","kind":"institution","name":"Yale Cancer Center / Smilow Cancer Hospital","route":"/institutions/yale-cancer-center/"}],"pathway":[{"id":"pd1-checkpoint","kind":"pathway","name":"PD-1 / PD-L1 immune checkpoint & T-cell activation","route":"/pathways/pd1-checkpoint/"}],"term":[{"id":"ihc","kind":"term","name":"Immunohistochemistry (IHC)","route":"/terms/ihc/"}],"journal":[{"id":"jama-oncology","kind":"journal","name":"JAMA Oncology","route":"/journals/jama-oncology/"}]}}