Multivariate analysis further confirmed that patients possessing a higher density of PD-L1-expressing ICs exhibited significantly lower risks for recurrence and death after adjusting for age, smoking, alcohol consumption, tumor location, tumor histology, tumor grade, and tumor, lymph node and metastases (TNM) pathologic stage (DFS: adjusted HR: 0.752, 95% CI: 0.61–0.92, P = .006; OS: adjusted HR: 0.872, 95% CI: 0.75–1.91, P = .064) (Table 4). Here, CD274 is linked to neoplasm.