CD40 and neoplasm: We also measured the level of CD40, i.e. a costimulatory molecule important for the activation and survival of DCs and found significantly increased levels of CD40 on MDCs and PDCs both before (median 432; median 584) and after tumor resection (median 524, median 656), compared to those expressed on control MDCs (median 322) and PDCs (median 349) (Figure 2B).