EPAS1 and nonpapillary renal cell carcinoma: In addition, studies with cell culture experiments have reported that HIF-2α stabilization, induced by the VHL mutation, together with impaired pVHL increased the PD-L1 expression, suggesting that PD-L1 is a HIF-2α target, which is upregulated in pVHL-deficient ccRCC [5, 8].