Immunosurvailence

Immunosurvailence is a process in which the immune system tries to detect and kill cancer cells. It almost always works, and the immune system fully eliminates the small amount of cancer there was to begin with. Only extremely rarely does the immune system fail, leading to cancer that requires treatment. So why do people even get cancer? Little cancer cells pop up in any person’s body so often, at least one per second, that by chance, one has a good probability of becoming an actual threat in someone’s lifetime. The specific cells which are involved in immunosurvailence are cytotoxic T cells aka. killer T cells aka. CD8+ T cells and Natural Killer cells. Cytotoxic T cells are similar to Natural Killer (NK) cells, but they are slightly different. Cytotoxic T cells look for strange or potentially cancerous macromolecules and proteins in MHC Class I (Major Histocompatibility Complex) proteins. MHC Class I proteins are basically windows into the cell, or more accurately, they are kitchen plates into which the cell shows the outside world what it’s making. If the T cell recognizes that they are abnormal, the T cell kills the cancer cell. If it is normal or the MHC Class I molecules are absent, the T cell moves on. Natural killer cells’ job is easier: determine if MHC class one molecules are even present! If they are, it moves on. If they are absent, that means that the cell is trying to hide something, and if it’s trying to hide something, it must be killed. This is immunosurvailence in a nutshell, and if you’re interested, check out my other articles about immunology!