[Biomarkers for cancer immunotherapy].

Immune-biomarkers and -assays are important for development of cancer immunotherapy to select the patients who are expected to respond to immunotherapy before or early after immunotherapy, to monitor immune induction following immunotherapy, and to evaluate anti-tumor effects early after immunotherapy. Comprehensive immune-evaluation including positive and negative immune responses against cancer cells and identification of blood biomarkers which reflect immune-conditions in tumor microenvironment are required although direct evaluation of tumor tissues can be possible for some patients. Importance of immune responses has recently been recognized even for standard cancer treatments including chemotherapy and molecular target therapy. Therefore, immunological biomarkers may be useful for any cancer treatment.