When Cancer Stumps the Immune System

Dr. Stephen Beers from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom explains how cancerous cells evade the attack of the immune system. Many tumors evolve to evade or inhibit the action of immune cells like macrophages and neutrophils.

Immunotherapies for cancer currently studied by immunologists and oncologists revolve around stimulating the immune system to fight the cancer cells. Rather than cytotoxic chemotherapy therapies, immunotherapy is much less harmful to the body's normal cells since it is the body's own immune system that is empowered to fight abnormally growing, cancerous cells.