Immune system battling cancer cells

Your Body's Silent Battle: Understanding Cancer as an Immune-Mediated Disease

Soraya Malik in Health & Wellness August 2025 • 3 min read.

"Unlock the secrets of how your immune system interacts with cancer, influencing everything from tumor growth to potential treatments."

For decades, the fields of oncology and immunology have been intertwined, driven by the need to develop more effective ways to combat cancer. Traditional treatments like surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation often fall short, failing to eliminate all cancerous cells and sometimes weakening the patient's immune response. This has spurred scientists to investigate how the immune system can be harnessed to fight cancer more effectively.

The immune system's role in cancer is complex and multifaceted. On one hand, cancer can be seen as a result of immune system failure, where malignant cells evade detection and destruction. Chronic infections and inflammation, often linked to weakened immune responses, can also contribute to cancer development. The environment surrounding a tumor further supports cancer cell survival and spread.

On the other hand, the immune system possesses the remarkable ability to recognize and destroy cancerous cells. By understanding how the immune system controls tumor initiation, growth, and progression, researchers hope to develop more targeted and effective cancer immunotherapies that can be used alone or in combination with conventional treatments.

The Immune System's Dual Role in Cancer

The idea that the immune system can recognize and respond to neoplastic cells isn't new. As early as the 19th century, scientists began exploring this concept. William Coley, a surgeon, observed that bacterial infections could sometimes lead to the remission of cancer, suggesting that the immune system could be stimulated to fight the disease. This led to early attempts to use bacteria-derived toxins to treat cancer, with some success.

Over time, researchers discovered that the immune system constantly surveys the body, eliminating abnormal cells before they can develop into tumors. This process, known as immunosurveillance, is a critical defense against cancer. However, when the immune system is weakened or compromised, cancer cells can escape this surveillance and begin to grow unchecked.

Several factors can impair the immune system's ability to fight cancer:

Downregulation of antigen processing and presentation by malignant cells.
Altered expression of certain chemokines and cytokines.
Induction of apoptosis in immune cells.
Suppression of immune cell function.

Cancer cells also employ various strategies to evade the immune system, such as suppressing immune responses and creating a tumor microenvironment that protects them from attack. This microenvironment often contains immune regulatory cells that further dampen the immune response, allowing the tumor to thrive. Understanding these mechanisms of immune evasion is crucial for developing effective immunotherapies.

The Future of Cancer Immunotherapy

By unraveling the complex interactions between the immune system and cancer, scientists are paving the way for more effective immunotherapies. These therapies aim to boost the immune system's ability to recognize and destroy cancer cells, overcome immune evasion mechanisms, and create a more favorable tumor microenvironment. As research progresses, the hope is that immunotherapy will become a cornerstone of cancer treatment, offering new hope for patients worldwide.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.2147/itt.s29834, Alternate LINK

Title: Cancer As An Immune-Mediated Disease

Subject: Immunology

Journal: ImmunoTargets and Therapy

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Authors: Michael Shurin

Published: 2012-06-01

Everything You Need To Know

How do traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy affect the immune system's ability to fight cancer?

Traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, while targeting cancerous cells, can also weaken the patient's immune response. This can occur because these treatments often fail to eliminate all cancerous cells and can impair the function of immune cells, making it harder for the immune system to recognize and destroy any remaining malignant cells. These treatments lack the specificity to target only cancer, which is why scientists are exploring ways to harness the immune system for more targeted and effective cancer therapies, such as immunotherapies that aim to boost the immune system's natural ability to fight cancer. Chemotherapy, radiation and surgery reduce the population of cancerous cells but do not provide immunological memory.

What is the role of 'immunosurveillance' in preventing cancer development, and what happens when it fails?

Imunosurveillance is a critical process where the immune system constantly surveys the body, identifying and eliminating abnormal cells before they can develop into tumors. When immunosurveillance is compromised, due to factors like a weakened immune system or strategies employed by cancer cells to evade detection, cancer cells can escape this surveillance and begin to grow unchecked. These evasion strategies include downregulation of antigen processing, altered expression of chemokines and cytokines, induction of apoptosis in immune cells, and suppression of immune cell function. If immunosurveillance is ineffective then the cancer will grow and eventually progress. Immunotherapies are in development to boost immunosurveillance.

How do cancer cells evade the immune system, and why is understanding these mechanisms important for developing new treatments?

Cancer cells evade the immune system through various mechanisms, including suppressing immune responses and creating a tumor microenvironment that protects them from attack. They achieve this by downregulating antigen processing and presentation, altering the expression of certain chemokines and cytokines, inducing apoptosis in immune cells, and suppressing immune cell function. This microenvironment often contains immune regulatory cells that further dampen the immune response, allowing the tumor to thrive. Understanding these mechanisms of immune evasion is crucial for developing effective immunotherapies that can overcome these defenses and enable the immune system to target and destroy cancer cells. If the tumor continues to evade the immune system it will metastasize.

Who was William Coley, and what was his contribution to understanding the relationship between the immune system and cancer?

William Coley was a surgeon who, in the 19th century, observed that bacterial infections could sometimes lead to the remission of cancer. This observation suggested that the immune system could be stimulated to fight the disease. Coley's work led to early attempts to use bacteria-derived toxins to treat cancer, with some success. His pioneering work was the origin of stimulating the immune system to fight cancer. Coley is known as the "Father of Immunotherapy."

What are 'cancer immunotherapies,' and how do they differ from traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation?

Cancer immunotherapies are treatments designed to boost the immune system's ability to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Unlike traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation, which directly target cancer cells but can also harm healthy cells and weaken the immune system, immunotherapies aim to enhance the body's natural defenses against cancer. Cancer immunotherapies overcome immune evasion mechanisms, and create a more favorable tumor microenvironment to allow immune cells to infiltrate and destroy the tumor. Traditional methods lack the specificity to target cancer while leaving healthy tissues untouched, leading to harsh side effects. The goal of immunotherapy is to offer more targeted and less toxic treatments by harnessing the power of the immune system.