Cancer's Bulwark Against Immune Attack: MDS Cells

摘要

For decades, researchers have been engaged in a frustrating effort to harness the power of the immune system to fight cancer. The approach works well enough in test tubes and experimental animals. Many types of cancer cells are studded with antigens that distinguish them from normal cells, and activated immune cells can seek out these targets and kill the cells that carry them. Yet attempts to destroy tumors by sparking similar responses in human patients, using so-called cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies, have largely ended in failure. Now, researchers may have an answer to this puzzle: A recently identified class of immune cells may help sabotage these efforts.