However, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), including anti-programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), have shown immense potential to further improve the prognosis of NSCLC patients (Chen et al., 2020), both as single agents and in combination therapies. The gene discussed is PDCD1; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.