AXL and neoplasm: In an early landmark study conducted by Tirosh et al. using Smart-seq2 protocol to dissect a heterogenous mixture of malignant cells expressing different levels of AXL kinase, it was identified that AXL-high cells were resistant in tumours treated with vemurafenib (BRAFi) or dabrafenib (BRAFi) and trametinib (RAF/MEKi), a mechanism that infers the use of checkpoint-based immunotherapies for patients who fail convectional targeted therapies [34].