CD274 and cancer: In this study it was discovered that HOXC4 could play a role in cancer pathogenesis through its involvement in a variety of immunological pathways, including via immune response, PD-L1 expression and PD-1 checkpoint pathway in cancers, PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, NK-κB signaling, and several metabolic pathways, consistent with previously published studies (Rouce et al., 2016; Yang et al., 2017; Pham et al., 2020).