Prognostic Impact of Immune-Related Gene Expression in Preoperative Peripheral Blood from Gastric Cancer Patients

Background Anti-PD-1 therapy has shown a promising clinical outcome in gastric cancer (GC). We evaluated the clinical significance of systemic immune-related gene expression in GC patients who underwent surgery. Methods The correlation between the preoperative PD - 1 , PD - L1, and CD8 mRNA levels in peripheral blood (PB) and clinicopathological factors, including survival, in 372 GC patients was evaluated using quantitative RT-PCR. PD-1- and PD-L1-expressing cells were identified by flow cytometric analysis. Results The PD - 1 , PD - L1, and CD8 mRNA levels in GC patients were significantly higher than those in normal controls, respectively (all P