Normalization against one or several markers, such as an immunohistochemical stain which the surgical pathologist determines to be highly specific for neoplastic cells in a given case, CD45 for hematopoietic cells, CD3 for T-cells, CD8 for cytotoxic T-cells, or CD68 for macrophages could result in an objective qualitative PD-L1 result that can be automated to reproducibly report PD-L1 expression relative to specific cell types in the tumor microenvironment. The gene discussed is CD8A; the disease is neoplasm.