A better understanding of the role secreted inflammatory cytokines play in the tumor microenvironment that results in the differentiation of effector T cells into exhausted T cells points to possible approaches to improve the antitumor activity of T cells and to intervene in T cell exhaustion. A new article exploring the expression patterns of inflammatory cytokines in tumor tissues and the blood of cancer patients and seeking to understand how exhausted T cells lose their antitumor properties is published in Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals.

In the review article, “The Role of Inflammatory Cytokines in Creating T Cell Exhaustion in Cancer,” Hedayatollah Shirzad and colleagues from Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran report on multiple studies that illustrate a direct role for inflammatory cytokines in the creation of cell exhaustion through multiple pathways. The researchers recommend a greater focus on efforts to reprogram exhausted T cells in the early stages and alternatively, therapeutic interventions such as anti-inflammation therapy.

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