CD163 expression in resected lung sections from an early lung cancer patient (Fig. 3a–d), a surviving patient with classic DM-related ILD (Fig. 3e–h; 66 year-old male patient, serum sCD163 = 519 ng/mL), and a non-surviving patient with classic DM-related ILD (Fig. 3i–l; 32 year-old male patient, serum sCD163 = 1572 ng/mL) were evaluated. Here, CD163 is linked to lung cancer.