The success of clinical trials for the PD-1/PD-L1 axis blockade led the FDA to approve antibodies for PD-1 (e.g. nivolumab, pembrolizumab) or PD-L1 (e.g. Atezolizumab, Avelumab, Durvalumab) for different types of human cancers including metastatic non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), squamous cell lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, hodgkin's lymphoma, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and recently, for microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) cancers that include many late-stage cancers (Chowdhury et al., 2018a). The gene discussed is PDCD1; the disease is renal cell carcinoma.