The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors is considered to be a highly effective therapeutic strategy for patients with NSCLC [5, 6], which prompted interest in evaluating the expression of T cell-related immunological factors such as Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) ligand 1 (PD-L1) both in tumor cells and immune cells [7]. Here, PDCD1 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.