Anti-tumor immunity was activated after Afatinib treatment
death, tumors, tumor
PRIMARY TUMOR, TUMOR, TUMORS
The expression of programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) was assessed by IHC score in 12 and 11 primary tumor samples before and after neoadjuvant Afatinib treatment in this trial, respectively. At baseline, 10 tumors (83.3%) were negative for PD-L1 expression, while 2 tumors (16.7%) showed positive expression. After NAT, 7 participants (7/11, 63.6%) exhibited positive PD-L1 expression in their primary tumor, including one participant with high expression. Analysis of paired samples before and after Afatinib treatment revealed elevated PD-L1 expression after treatment in 3 responders and 2 non-responders (Supplementary Fig. In longitudinal tumor samples from responders, a total of 1681 genes were found to be differentially expressed between baseline and post-treatment samples. After Afatinib treatment, 721 genes showed down-regulated expression, while 960 genes exhibited up-regulated expression (Fig. 