Taken together, these experiments demonstrate tight correlation between both endogenous and induced expression of NLRC5 and MHC-I expression in murine pancreatic cancer cell lines and in human patients and indicate that increased expression of NLRC5, as induced by irradiation, is sufficient to enhance cytotoxic activity by antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in response to antigenic stimulation by cancer cells. Here, CD8A is linked to cancer.