The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a number of new immune and targeted drugs, such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (Her-2) inhibitors for advanced ESCC treatment, but the survival rate of those advanced patients is still low (3, 4). The gene discussed is PDCD1; the disease is esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.