Abstract:Objective To investigate the relationship between programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and nuclear antigen Ki67 (Ki67) and clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods The clinical data of 90 NSCLC patients admitted to Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province from November 2017 to November 2018 were analyzed. HE staining was carried out to observe the pulmonary pathological changes, and the expression of PD-L1 and Ki67 in the pathological tissues of patients was detected by immunohistochemistry. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression model were used to analyze the relationship between PD-L1, Ki67 expression and clinicopathological characteristics in NSCLC patients, while survival curve was applied to evaluate the association between PD-L1 and Ki67 expression and prognosis in patients with NSCLC. Results Among 90 NSCLC patients, there were 62 (68.89%) patients with PD-L1 positive expression and 28 (31.11%) with negative expression, whereas 58 (64.44%) patients were with positive expression and 32 (35.56%) with negative expression of Ki67. PD-L1 expression was higher in patients with squamous cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated tumor, and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The expression of Ki67 was higher in females, patients with squamous cell carcinoma, and those with poorly differentiated tumors (P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that the patient’s pathological classification, degree of tumor differentiation, and lymph node metastasis were the influencing factors of high PD-L1 expression (P < 0.05). However, the patient’s gender, pathological classification, degree of tumor differentiation were contributory factors of high expression of Ki67 (P < 0.05). The 2-year survival rate of patients in the PD-L1 positive expression group (48.39%) was lower than that of the PD-L1 negative expression group (78.57%) (P < 0.05). To be specific, the corresponding median survival time of patients with positive and negative expression of PD-L1 was 42 and 65 weeks (P < 0.05). The survival rate of patients in the Ki67 positive expression group (48.27%) was as well lower than that in the Ki67 negative expression group (75.00%) (P < 0.05), and the median survival time for the two groups was 41 and 66 weeks respectively (P < 0.05). Conclusions In NSCLC patients, there was high expression of PD-L1 and Ki67 in pathological tissues. The pathological classification, tumor differentiation, and lymph node metastasis were related to PD-L1 high expression, while the gender, pathological classification, and tumor differentiation were related to Ki67 high expression. Furthermore, the prognosis of patients with negative PD-L1 and Ki67 expression was better than that of patients with positive expression.