The development of new immunotherapy by regulating immune checkpoint molecules for the treatment of digestive cancers

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There are lots of patients who die due to cancer in Japan. The standard treatments for cancer are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Although recent progress in those therapies improve prognosis of cancer patients, many patients still die due to cancer. Therefore, the development of new effective therapy is indispensable to improve prognosis of cancer patients. Immunotherapy is considered to be a most promising candidate. We performed current study to develop new effective immunotherapy for the treatment of digestive cancer. In the current study, we found that the function of T cells was impaired and this phenomenon was induced by up-regulation of various immune checkpoint molecules. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that T cell function could be recovered by regulating these molecules. This approach may be the breakthrough for the treatment of cancer patients.