Indeed, PD-L1 has been reported in literature to affect tumor cell proliferation by increasing the levels of p-Erk, p-JNK and p-P38 proteins, which are members of the MAPK family and play an important role in the transduction of extracellular signalling, thus regulating several cellular functions such as cell proliferation, survival and differentiation13–15. Here, MAPK8 is linked to neoplasm.