Good News from Immunotherapy: Our Immune Defense Stands Up to Cancer

The immune system defends us and combats many microbes, like the viruses that cause the common cold or bacteria that enter wounds. Our defenses can also learn to protect us from more difficult situations—and they can do so with the lessons learned from vaccines. For example, the poliovirus vaccine teaches the immune system to recognize and eliminate the poliovirus, in case it ever enters the body. In recent years, scientists have found that the immune system can also be taught to attack another type of disease: cancer. Cancer is a big mistake in our body. It happens when cells lose control and start to grow without limits. The good news is that we can educate the immune system in cancer patients—this is called immunotherapy. In this article, we will explain how our defenses can learn to attack and eliminate cancer.