PD-L1 diagnostic test in non-small-cell lung cancer assessed in Swedish Örebro County Council

In Sweden, the County Councils are grouped into six healthcare regions to facilitate cooperation and to maintain a high level of advanced medical care. One of them is Örebro County Council with its Centre for Assessment of Medical Technology (CAMTÖ). This center serving the whole of Örebro County Council commissioned to promote Evidence-Based Medicine and to act as an advisory body within the County Council in matters related to Health Technology Assessment. It initiates processes to distribute the conclusions of national or regional systematic literature reviews to healthcare through the Council for Medical Knowledge Management. It produces systematic literature reviews for decision making, for example, on introducing new methods, or disposal of existing methodology. It leads to the development of HTA cooperation in the healthcare region Uppsala-Örebro.

In November 2019, CAMTÖ has released an HTA report for PD-L1 positivity tested by McAb SP263 to guide immune checkpoint therapy in non-small-cell lung cancer that aimed to estimate what proportion of all tumors of a particular cancer form is suitable for immunotherapy, based on positive staining of various strength.

The literature search was performed with the following conclusions provided by CAMTÖ:

• The patient groups examined were very different between each other, and the proportion that had a strong positive result varied greatly
• No safe conclusions could be drawn, but the wide range of positivity rates implies the difficulties in the standardization of PD-L1 expression and the need for better predictive biomarkers
• As immune inhibitors are very expensive, and also associated with severe side effects, it is necessary to keep up with how this area develops in the real-world setting

See the full information in Swedish here.

Subscribe to our newsletter delivered every second week not to miss important reimbursement information.