Significant benefit of nivolumab combining radiotherapy in metastatic gallbladder cancer patient with strong PD-L1 expression: a case report

• Main Authors: Kong W, Wei J, Liu J, Qiu Y, Shi J, He J, Su M, Xiao M, Liu B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2019-07-01
• Series: OncoTargets and Therapy
• Subjects: Immunotherapy; radiotherapy; PD-L1; biomarker; GBC
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/significant-benefit-of-nivolumab-combining-radiotherapy-in-metastatic--peer-reviewed-article-OTT

Weiwei Kong,1,2 Jia Wei,1 Juan Liu,1 Yudong Qiu,3 Jiong Shi,4 Jian He,5 Mu Su,6 Mingzhe Xiao,7 Baorui Liu11The Comprehensive Cancer Centre of Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University & Clinical Cancer Institute of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Oncology of Yizheng Hospital, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Group, Yizheng 211400, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of General Surgery, Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Pathology, Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Radiology, Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Oncology, Nanjing Second People’s Hospital, Nanjing 210003, People’s Republic of China; 7The Medical Department, 3D Medicines Inc, Shanghai 201114, People’s Republic of ChinaBackground: Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the main pathological type of biliary tract cancers. Due to its aggressive nature, GBC is usually diagnosed at advanced stages with limited therapeutic options and poor outcome, especially after failure of chemotherapy.Case presentation: Herein, we report a recurrent metastatic GBC patient with strong programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression (≥50%) who obtained a significant response to radiotherapy combining nivolumab treatment.Conclusions: To our knowledge this is the first case presenting significant nivolumab response in a Chinese GBC patient. This remarkable response was most likely associated with the strong PD-L1 expression, and indicated that PD-L1 expression could be considered as a biomarker for nivolumab treatment in metastatic gallbladder cancer. However, more studies are needed for validation.Keywords: immunotherapy, radiotherapy, PD-L1, biomarker, gall bladder cancer (GBC)