The results of anti-TGF-β1 and anti-p-Smad3 IHC assays showed that, relative to vehicle and anti-PD-L1, YM101 lowered the expressions of TGF-β1 and p-Smad3 in the EMT-6 tumor model (Additional file 1: Figure S4a, b). Here, SMAD3 is linked to neoplasm.