Mechanistically, its regulation of PD-L1 is complex, with several potential pathways elucidated in other cancers that may also be relevant to OSCC: (I) ceRNA activity by sponging miR-200 family members that normally suppress PD-L1 translation, MALAT1 derepresses PD-L1 production, enabling cancer cells to evade T cell surveillance in lung cancer (Xu et al., 2024); (II) MALAT1 interacts with epigenetic regulatory complexes. Here, MALAT1 is linked to cancer.