OBJECTIVES: Programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is expressed on tumor cells (TC) and tumor-infiltrating immune cells (IC). We conducted a retrospective study to investigate the relationship between PD-L1 expression on TC/IC and F-FDG uptake in patients with surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: Total 362 NSCLC patients (297 adenocarcinoma and 65 squamous cell carcinoma) who underwent preoperative F-FDG-PET/CT imaging were analyzed retrospectively. Immunohistochemistry analysis was performed for PD-L1 expression on TC and IC in NSCLC specimens with 28-8 antibody. The cut-off value of 5% for defining PD-L1 positivity was determined according to previous trials. The association between PD-L1 expression and clinicopathological variables were analyzed, including age, gender, smoking status, tumor diameter, lymph node metastasis, stage and the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax). RESULTS: PD-L1 positive expression was 50.8% (184/362) in NSCLC patients. Its positive expression on TC and IC were 24.3% (88/362) and 42.5% (154/362), respectively. SUVmax was significantly higher in patients with PD-L1 positive expression on TC or IC than that with negative. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that PD-L1 expression were correlated with SUVmax. The best cut-off value of SUVmax for PD-L1 expression on TC/IC was 8.5 [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.607, 95% CI 0.549-0.665, P = 0.001, sensitivity 50.5% and specificity 71.4%] determined by ROC curve. CONCLUSION: High SUVmax is linked to PD-L1 expression on TC and IC in our patients with surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer. F-FDG-PET/CT imaging may be used to predict the PD-L1 expression on TC and IC in NSCLC patients.