A multinational team of researchers has reportedly discovered the explanation for the sudden halt in the growth of some tumors, which seem to go into a long period of dormancy. According to their findings, the immune system has the ability to stop the growth of a cancerous tumor, though not actually killing it. Hence, according to the researchers, even when immune attacks cannot kill off the cancer, they can certainly be used to contain cancerous growths.
The researches are based on the cancer-immune system stalemate equilibrium. During this state, the immune system can diminish the cancer’s ability to replicate and it even kills some of the cancerous cells. However, the entire process is not quick enough to actually eliminate or shrink malignant tumors.
Mark J.Smyth, Ph.D, McCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia said,
We may one day be able to use immunotherapy to artificially induce equilibrium and convert cancer into a chronic but controllable disease. Proper immune function is now appreciated as another important factor in preventing the development of some cancers. Further research and clinical validation of this process may also turn established cancers into a chronic condition, similar to other serious diseases that are controlled long-term by taking a medicine.
During the research, some mice were injected with small doses of chemical carcinogen ( in order to observe dormant tumors in them). At the injection site, some of the mice had small, stable masses. It was seen that when certain components of their immune system were disabled, the small growths developed to become full-blown cancers. This clearly shows that, the growth of tumors was previously being held in check by the immune system.
As a follow-up to this research, the scientists now want to find out what happens in the immune system and tumors at the molecular level during equilibrium. The applicability of their results in humans and in different types of cancers would also be looked into in great detail.
Source: ivanhoe
