In the NSCLC cohort (GSE126044) receiving anti-PD-1 antibody immunotherapy, patients who responded to immunotherapy had significantly higher IPTSes than patients who did not respond to immunotherapy (P = 0.0032) (Fig. 5A) with a ROC AUC of 0.95 (95% CI = 1.00–0.84), while the ROC AUC of PD-L1 was 0.73 (95% CI = 0.99–0.46, Fig. 5D) indicating that IPTS has a great predictive effect for the efficacy of immunotherapy in this dataset. Here, PDCD1 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.