LAUSR

&NA; Although anti‐programmed death ligand‐1 (PD‐L1) therapy has shown light in treatment of gastric cancer, only a limited number of patients respond to the treatment. In addition to its immunosuppressive effect, PD‐L1 is involved in other functions of tumor cells. Previously study showed that PD‐L1 promoted EMT in lung cancer cells. However, the other effect and role of PD‐L1 in gastric cancer remains unclear. In the present study, we first demonstrated that PD‐L1 promoted the proliferation and migration in gastric cancer cell lines. We found that another STAT family member, STAT5a, is involved in regulating the expression of PD‐L1 in gastric cancer. Additionally, Cbl‐b interacted and ubiquitated STAT5a, down‐regulated the expression of STAT5a and PD‐L1. Moreover, bioinformatics predictions and experimental data showed that Cbl‐b is a target gene of the microRNA miR‐940. We further found that miR‐940 promoted the proliferation and migration of gastric cancer in vivo and in vitro. Taken together, our findings suggest that miR‐940/Cbl‐b/STAT5a axis regulated the expression of PD‐L1, which promotes the proliferation and migration of gastric cancer cells.