Control of Tumor Growth by the Immune System

The immune system is the primary defense of the organism against diseases, but cancer is often able to evade its response. Many advanced therapeutic strategies nowadays aim to redirect the immune response against the tumor. In Section 9.1, we introduce the immune system, discussing innate and adaptive immunity. The ability of cancer cells to escape the immune response is discussed in Section 9.2. The communication between cells during the immune response is coordinated by cytokines, as we discuss in 9.3. The organism responds to external pathogens by a process of inflammation that we review in Section 9.4, where we also discuss its relevance for tumors. Finally, in Section 9.5, we illustrate simple mathematical models for the interactions between cancer cells and the immune system.