Fig. 5: Proof-of-concept application for clinical use.

a, b Heatmap (a) and corresponding scatter plots (b) of sPD-L1 levels in serum samples from healthy donors (HD) and patients with LC. Data represent mean ± s.d. (n = 22 for each group, two-tailed Mann–Whitney tests, P = 0.000031). c, d Heatmap (c) and corresponding scatter plots (d) of LDH levels in serum samples from HD and LC groups. Data represent mean ± s.d. (n = 22 for each group, two-tailed Mann–Whitney tests, P = 0.041). e, f sPD-L1 (e) and LDH levels (f) in patients who achieved disease control before and after immunotherapy (n = 9 for each group, two-tailed paired t test, P = 0.000214 for (e), P = 0.001 for (f)). g, h sPD-L1 (g) and LDH levels (h) of LC patients with progression (prog and non-progression (No prog). Data represent mean ± s.d. (n = 15 for each group, two-tailed Student’s t test, P = 0.003 for (g); two-tailed Welch’s t test, P = 0.005 for (h)). i Comparison of 1-year progression rates with different changes in sPD-L1 and LDH levels after immunotherapy (n = 38 patients). “-” indicates no increase of sPD-L1 or LDH. “+” indicates the increase of sPD-L1 or LDH. j Clinical outcomes of patients by changes in sPD-L1 and LDH levels after immunotherapy. k Receiver operating characteristic curves of different biomarkers and the combined multiple biomarkers (SUM) for predicting progression after immunotherapy. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001.