The immune system can naturally respond to some cancers, but tumors are made up of natural cells that the immune system is designed to ignore. Researchers are studying tumor antigens and ways to teach the immune system to differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells, including using drugs to label overexpressing cells.
Tumor immunity is the immune system’s response to tumors, abnormal cell growths that occur in the body. There is some scientific evidence to support theories that the body has some natural immunity to cancer, depending on the type of cancer involved, as some cancers can spontaneously regress without medical treatment. Studying how the immune system interacts with tumors is an important aspect of developing appropriate treatments for tumors, including treatments designed to enhance immune responses to more effectively fight tumors from within.
From an immunologist’s point of view, the problem with tumors is their composition. Tumors are made up of natural cells that grow out of control. The immune system is designed to ignore cells from within the body, and as immune cells mature, the cells that target the body’s tissues are usually destroyed, although there are usually a handful of survivors. As a result, when immune cells are exposed to tumors, most don’t react, because they don’t see anything abnormal. The handful of cells that do aren’t numerous enough to kill the tumor.
Researchers have identified a number of tumor antigens, chemicals found on the surface of tumors with the potential to interact with the immune system. Tumor immunity is based on reacting to those antigens and targeting a tumor for destruction. Tumors with antigens that the body recognizes as harmful will be attacked by the immune system, even though it may not be able to destroy them completely. In other cases, the immune response is highly effective and a patch of malignant growth is destroyed before it has a chance to develop into a full-blown tumor.
Immunity is achieved in many different ways, including through exposure to antigens, as seen with vaccination, where small amounts of antigens are introduced into the body to teach the immune system to recognize them. In the case of tumor immunity, the main area of concern is the normal antigens overexpressed on a tumor. Teaching the immune system to differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells in the body may be possible by having the immune cells target the cells they are overexpressing.
Another area of research in tumor immunity has been the possibility of using drugs to label overexpressing cells. The tags are identified by the immune system as dangerous and will attack the attacked cells, killing the tumor. This requires successful diagnosis and typing of a cancer, preferably in its early stages, before it has the opportunity to become highly invasive.
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