To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that α5-nAChR is involved in immune escape via STAT3/PD-L1 or STAT3/Jab1-PD-L1 signalling in lung cancer, which may be useful as a potential target for NSCLC diagnosis and immunotherapy in the future. This evidence concerns the gene CD274 and non-small cell lung carcinoma.