Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #cancer_immunology
Most recents (2)
1/ There is a complex set of interactions that must go on between a tumor and its surroundings. It has to interact with the tissue cells, it needs nutrients, it needs oxygen, it needs to survive and proliferate in a hostile environment.
2/ One of the many things it has to achieve to exist and thrive is to overcome the immune system and its natural ability to find, target and destroy tumors. There are 3 key cells in the immune system that are designed to find and kill cells that are infected or defective. 
1/ The immune system is the primary surveillance system for preventing cancer. We have mutations occur all the time, but it only evolves into cancer once it learns to escape the immune system.
2/ The tumor begins when a cell gains a mutation that allows it to grow and replicate faster then normal. Otherwise, these cells are completely normal cells in every way. We call this hyperplasia or a benign growth.
