In recent years, the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) targeting the programmed death 1-programmed death ligand 1 (PD1-PDL1) pathway has resulted in further improvements in the outcome of patients with metastatic HNSCC, but the results remain unsatisfactory when compared with other malignancies, like melanoma and lung cancer (5, 6). Here, CD274 is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.