{"entity":{"id":"pdcd1lg2","kind":"target","name":"PDCD1LG2","aka":["programmed cell death 1 ligand 2","Programmed cell death 1 ligand 2","PD-L2","Btdc","PDL2","bA574F11.2","CD273","B7-DC","B7DC"],"tldr":"PDCD1LG2 (Programmed cell death 1 ligand 2) is a gene that drives cell growth when it is altered. The public catalogues list it as a drug target, an oncogene driver, a biomarker and an antigen, and an approved or late-stage drug is recorded against it. Tied to Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, Thyroid cancer, Breast cancer and 2 more.","summary":"Plays a critical role in induction and maintenance of immune tolerance to self. Acts as a ligand for the inhibitory receptor PDCD1/PD-1, inhibiting T-cell proliferation by blocking cell cycle progression and cytokine production.\n\nCIViC holds 1 clinical evidence item and 0 assertions across 1 variant, naming Pembrolizumab. Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.64 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 0.99, genetic association 0.00, somatic mutation 0.82). IntOGen calls it a driver in 2 cohorts (2 activating, 0 loss-of-function), covering Melanoma, Well-Differentiated Thyroid Cancer. In OnCo, 3 product records name it (Retifanlimab, Sintilimab and Sasanlimab).","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:18731","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:18731"},{"label":"UniProt Q9BQ51","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q9BQ51/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 80380","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/80380"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000197646","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000197646"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["civic","open-targets","intogen"],"cancers":["head-and-neck","thyroid","breast-cancer","melanoma","papillary-thyroid-cancer"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["retifanlimab","sasanlimab","sintilimab"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: CIViC lists 1 therapies; IntOGen calls it an activating (Act) driver in 2 cohorts; CIViC holds 1 clinical evidence items on its variants; a membrane or secreted protein (UniProt keywords) that 3 antibody-based OnCo products name. Evidence tier \"approved-drug\" is the strongest of those signals.","Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts (CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC, UniProt)","editedOn":"2026-09-23"},"symbol":"PDCD1LG2","role":["drug-target","oncogene-driver","biomarker","antigen","immune-checkpoint"],"evidenceTier":"approved-drug","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:18731","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:18731","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt Q9BQ51","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q9BQ51/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene PDCD1LG2","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/15403","note":"1 evidence items, 0 assertions, 1 variants; diseases: Head And Neck Cancer (GraphQL API, CC0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000197646","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000197646/associations","note":"association with cancer (MONDO_0004992) 0.64; per-cancer scores at or above 0.5: breast cancer 0.54 (GraphQL API, CC0)"},{"label":"IntOGen PDCD1LG2","url":"https://www.intogen.org/search?gene=PDCD1LG2","note":"driver in 2 cohorts (Act 2, LoF 0); Compendium_Cancer_Genes.tsv release 20240920, CC0 1.0"}],"specificity":"lineage-antigen","distribution":"few-types","specificityNote":"Lineage antigen shared with normal lymphoid tissue cells: HPA blood lineage low lineage specificity at or above 25 nTPM, and 3 antibodies (Retifanlimab, Sasanlimab, Sintilimab) aim at it, so normal cells of the lineage are hit too. HPA PDCD1LG2: RNA tissue enhanced (lymphoid tissue 14 nTPM); high antibody staining in 18 normal tissues; highest cancer staining liver cancer (4 of 12 high). Distribution: 4 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, Thyroid cancer, Breast cancer (all types), Skin cancer (all types)); approvals of single-target medicines aimed at it also list Anal cancer (squamous cell carcinoma), Lung cancer (all types), Hepatocellular carcinoma, Oesophageal cancer and more, not counted; Open Targets associates it with 0 specific cancer types at or above 0.5. (Rule 5 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas PDCD1LG2 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000197646-PDCD1LG2/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Human Protein Atlas PDCD1LG2 pathology","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000197646-PDCD1LG2/pathology","note":"patients per staining level per cancer type (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000197646 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000197646/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:18731","ensembl":"ENSG00000197646","uniprot":"Q9BQ51","entrez":"80380","firstDescribed":2001,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Tseng S.-Y. et al, J. Exp. Med, 2001, \"B7-DC, a new dendritic cell molecule with potent costimulatory properties for T cells\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11283156/","biology":"Plays a critical role in induction and maintenance of immune tolerance to self. Acts as a ligand for the inhibitory receptor PDCD1/PD-1, inhibiting T-cell proliferation by blocking cell cycle progression and cytokine production. Location: Secreted; Endomembrane system; Cell membrane (UniProt). Locus 9p24.1 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: CIViC evidence names this disease","Thyroid cancer: IntOGen driver in 1 cohort (WDTC)","Breast cancer: Open Targets association 0.54 with breast cancer (MONDO_0007254)","Melanoma: IntOGen driver in 1 cohort (MEL)","Papillary thyroid cancer: IntOGen driver in 1 cohort (WDTC)"],"targetClass":"oncogene","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/pdcd1lg2/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"civic","kind":"collection","name":"CIViC","route":"/collections/civic/"},{"id":"intogen","kind":"collection","name":"IntOGen","route":"/collections/intogen/"},{"id":"open-targets","kind":"collection","name":"Open Targets Platform","route":"/collections/open-targets/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"breast-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Breast cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/breast-cancer/"},{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"},{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"},{"id":"papillary-thyroid-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Papillary thyroid cancer","route":"/cancers/papillary-thyroid-cancer/"},{"id":"thyroid","kind":"cancer","name":"Thyroid cancer","route":"/cancers/thyroid/"}],"drug":[{"id":"retifanlimab","kind":"drug","name":"Retifanlimab","route":"/drugs/retifanlimab/"},{"id":"sasanlimab","kind":"drug","name":"Sasanlimab","route":"/drugs/sasanlimab/"},{"id":"sintilimab","kind":"drug","name":"Sintilimab","route":"/drugs/sintilimab/"}],"term":[{"id":"checkpoint","kind":"term","name":"Checkpoint (two meanings)","route":"/terms/checkpoint/"}]}}