CD274 and esophageal cancer: Interestingly, furthermore, we found that both pSTAT1-y701 and IFIT2 levels, were significantly increased when PD-L1 knockdown and significantly decreased when PD-L1 was over-expressed, suggesting that STAT1/IFIT2 pathway was involved in the PD-L1-mediated regulation of biological function of esophageal cancer cells, and our following cellular studies also confirmed this speculation.