SMAD2 and neoplasm: By performing differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis, we found that many immunosuppressive and exhaustion-related genes such as LAG3, CD101, SMAD2, and ID1, which was one type of the mediators of tumor progression (Perk et al., 2006), were highly expressed in PBMCs from RTP patients (Figures 4E and 5L).