Although monotherapy with chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has been widely used (4, 5), the combined agents have become a new treatment modality against NSCLC due to the resistance of chemotherapeutic drugs and limited efficacy of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and its ligand inhibitors alone (6, 7). The gene discussed is PDCD1; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.