Archives in Cancer Research

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Cancer Epigenetics Scholarly Journal

Cancer immunology is an interdisciplinary branch of biology concerned with the role of the immune system in the progression and development of cancer; the most well-known application is cancer immunotherapy, where the immune system is used to treat cancer. Cancer immunosurveillance is a theory formulated in 1957 by Burnet and Thomas, who proposed that lymphocytes act as sentinels in recognizing and eliminating continuously arising, nascent transformed cells. Cancer immunosurveillance appears to be an important host protection process that decreases cancer rates through inhibition of carcinogenesis and maintaining of regular cellular homeostasis. It has also been suggested that immunosurveillance primarily functions as a component of a more general process of cancer immunoediting.

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The immune system plays a central role in defending the body from infection, and also can play an important role in the host response to neoplasia. The ability of the immune system to detect and kill tumor cells has been called immune surveillance. While many effective antitumor immune mechanisms have been described, it is not entirely clear whether antitumor immune responses operate in immune surveillance, at least as this concept was defined originally. For example, patients who are immune-deficient, such as people who have AIDS, do have a higher frequency of cancer. However, the tumors that develop in these patients tend to be lymphoproliferative tumors, such as lymphoma, or unusual forms of cancer that are associated with virus infection, such as Kaposi sarcoma. Therefore, the natural role of the immune system in preventing cancer may be more restricted than originally envisioned. However, there is no doubt that the immune system can interact with tumor cells in various ways, and that immune responses, whether natural or induced, can lead to tumor regression. In fact, a recent report provides compelling evidence that the immune system can maintain tumors (methylcholanthrene-induced sarcomas in a murine model) in a state of equilibrium, and that this equilibrium is mediated by tumor-specific adaptive immune system responses.  As more is learned about the interactions between cancer and the immune system, opportunities for new immunotherapeutic and immunodiagnostic approaches become apparent. In this chapter, a brief overview of immunology and of biologic therapies relevant to gynecologic cancers is presented.

 

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