PD-L1 (CD274) promoter methylation predicts survival in colorectal cancer patients

This study evaluates promoter methylation of the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) as a biomarker in a cohort of 383 colorectal cancer patients. PD-L1 methylation (mPD-L1) was inversely correlated with PD-L1 mRNA expression (p = 0.001) and was associated with significantly shorter overall survival (OS, p = 0.003) and recurrence-free survival (RFS, p < 0.001). In age-stratified multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses including sex, tumor, nodal, distant metastasis categories, microsatellite instability (MSI)-status, and PD-L1 mRNA, mPD-L1 is classified as an independent prognostic factor (OS: p = 0.030; RFS: p < 0.001). Further studies are needed to evaluate PD-L1 methylation as a biomarker for response prediction of immunotherapies targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis.