To observe whether anti-PD-1 can benefit adoptive DNT therapy in vivo, PD-L1 expressing NCI-H460 lung cancer cell line was subcutaneously implanted and established to ~ 100 mm3 and DNT cells, with or without anti-PD-1, were administered using two methods, either locally by s.c. peritumoral injection or systemically by intravenous (i.v.)tail vein injection as shown schematically in Fig. 4a and Additional file 2: Figure S5A, respectively. Here, CD274 is linked to lung cancer.