Imagine developing a drug designed to inhibit a protein that helps cancer cells proliferate and survive only to find that the drug does not perform very well in the clinic. This was the dilemma faced by scientists researching inhibitors of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT3), a protein that controls transcription by the STAT3 gene. When STAT3 was knocked out in a mouse model, researchers observed increased T-cell immune responses, suggesting a valuable therapeutic target. However, targeting STAT3 in tumors has had only limited success to date.
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