T cell receptors and cancer: gain gives pain.

摘要

The phrase "war on cancer" has been widely derided, but war imagery helps illustrate how the treatment of cancer has been hampered by the lack of agents that specifically target 'insurgent' cells and cause minimum 'collateral damage'. Researchers have thus turned to the immune system, with its excellent capacity to target foreign invaders, to gain greater selectivity against tumors and hence fewer adverse effects compared to chemotherapy and radiation.