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Tumors Use a Protein to Hide From Immune System
THURSDAY, March 25New research from Switzerland provides insight into how tumors remain undetected by the body’s immune system by mimicking lymph nodes.
“The tumor tricks the body into thinking it is healthy tissue,” lead author Melody Swartz, head of the Laboratory of Lymphatic and Cancer Bioengineering, said in a news release about the study, published online March 25 in Science.
According to Swartz and her colleagues at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, the findings could lead to better treatments for cancer.
In the study, the researchers focused on a protein that is typically found in lymph nodes and discovered that certain tumors can secrete the protein, making them appear to be lymph nodes. This disguise allows the tumors to manipulate immune cells known as T-cells, just like lymph nodes do, the study authors explained.
The findings have “important implications for tumor immunotherapy,” Jacqui Shields, another researcher, explained in the news release.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has details on different types of cancer.
Source: HealthDay
