Previous research by Sen et al. (2019) indicated that the inhibition of DNA damage repair proteins poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) and checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) significantly increases PD-L1 expression in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC), thereby activating the STING/TBK1/IRF3 immune pathway. Here, TBK1 is linked to small cell lung carcinoma.