Introduction to Cancer and the Immune system(只有英文)

2021.09.15前香港大學助理教授

此文章只提供英文版本。

Our immune system is developed to fight against infections from pathogens and to monitor the status of our health. In a normal state, our immune cells will react once harmful cells are present. However, some tumor cells have evolved to develop ‘defense mechanisms’ against our immune cells, therefore making it difficult for our immune systems to detect and eradicate the cancer cells. One of the current cytotoxic treatments for cancer is to induce cell death via the likes of Chemotherapy or radiotherapy for example. This not only attacks the cancer cell directly, but also alerts the immune system to the presence of them, further activating the immune response to kill and clear cancer cells. Therefore, our immune system plays an important role for resolving cancer.