NK cells, anti-tumor surveillance and interleukins

Abstract

This chapter presents a discussion of immunology and oncology. A basic tenet of cancer immunology is the concept that the immune system is able to recognize and destroy cancer cells and thus the immune system exercises a protective role in host defense against neoplastic disease. This tenet predicates the presence on neoplastic cells of tumor antigens capable of triggering an immune response. The tumor-associated antigen is characterized as being found on a tumor cell and not detectable on the cells of an adult normal individual. These tumor-associated cell surface antigens (TASA) include the tumor-associated transplantation antigens (TATA) involved in tumor transplant rejection and are capable of inducing resistance to tumor growth in the autocthonous host and in syngeneic hosts. The presence of TASA on tumor cells has been reported for a variety of human tumors as well as for tumors of experimental animals. The immune response is mediated by two major lymphocyte populations: B cells that undergo a bursal equivalent maturation process and are responsible for antibody production (humoral immunity) and T cells that require the thymus for maturation and are responsible for specific cell-mediated immunity, including allograft rejection, delayed hypersensitivity reactions, direct tumor cell killing in some systems, and lymphokine production. The chapter discusses suppressor cells, macrophage cytotoxicity, natural killer cells, interferons and tumor immune reactivity.