A correlation study was conducted between VISTA expression and the same immune checkpoints (PD-1, Tim-3 and LAG-3). VISTA was positively correlated with PD-1 (p = 0.0048, r = 0.112), Tim-3 (p < 0.0001, r = 0.682) and LAG-3 (p < 0.0001, r = 0.2) gene expression (Fig. 4a), suggesting that tumor cells may likely use VISTA gene in the same way as these three immune checkpoints to escape the immune system. Here, LAG3 is linked to neoplasm.