PD-L1 expression

Hi 

my mom also has NSCLC stage 3.  The surgeon explained to me basically it is the make up of the tumour cells and can 

determine the most appropriate treatment to suit the patient.  Hope this helps.  

Hi Shellbaby

As Sox correctly says this is the make up of the cancer type. From my rough understanding I PDL 1 means the programmed death ligand. This is when cells are designed to die and make copies of themselves as all cells are designed to do. Something happens and the faulty make up has stopped the self destruction of themselves and they copy the error which is how tumours are formed.

When a high % of the PDL1 is detected it can mean that they respond well to an immunotherapy treatment (usually Keytruda) as it makes the persons immune system able to stop those cells hiding from it and they should be attacked by the immune system to self destruct. 

If a PDL1 marker is 50% or more, they may opt for immunotherapy as a first line treatment over chemotherapy in the hope it would have more of an effect. However they have said this is not always the case and sometime low markers can also  respond well to immunotherapy.

Hopefully that makes a bit of sense, it is quite difficult to understand and harder to try and explain.

Thank you so much Gina for your reply. I have googled it myself and found it hard to understand, but you have explained it perfectly  my dad passed away 18 months ago due to lymphoma! He was only ill for 4 months before he passed away. When mum was diagnosed with NSCLC in February after complaining of pain in her chest, it can as a complete and utter shock. With dad I felt things weren’t explained to us how serious dads cancer and staging  was, so with my mum I take no chances and try to find out as much as I can. 

Thanks again Michelle 

Thanks Soxy for your comment

I had googled the details but it was really hard to understand what this extra information was on mums GP letter.