We found that NSCLC patients who had higher levels of tumor-associated caspase-4 (> 377 pg/ml, cut-off) but were negative for PD-L1 had lower survival rate (median survival = 0.96 years; % of survival rate at 1 year≈30%) (Fig. 3a, blue line) (Fig. 3b, n = 52/75, 69.3%) than patients (9.3%) who had higher levels of tumor-associated caspase-4 but PD-L1 positive (median survival = undefined; % survival rate at 1 year≈80%) (Fig. 3a, black line; Fig. 3b, n = 7/75, 11.1%). The gene discussed is CD274; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.