PDCD1LG2 and cancer: The glycolytic phenotype were also found to have elevated checkpoint ligands (PD-L1, PD-L2) compared to mitochondrial oxidation phenotype across patients (Fig. 5f; Supplementary Fig. 14)49, which is consistent with the recent reports that PD-L1 regulates glucose utilization and prompts glycolysis in cancer cells50,51 and echoing the previous observation of the association between EMT and PD-L1 expression in lung cancer52,53.