The growth of most cancers (even supposedly nonimmunogenic) are driven by tumor stimulating immune reactions

RUGGIERO, RAÚL A.; BRUZZO, JUAN; CHIARELLA, PAULA; PREHN, LIISA M.; PREHN, RICHMOND T.

Hypothesis in Clinical Medicine

Nova Science Publishers

Año: 2012; p. 98 - 112

Positive immune selection is the probable force tending to keep the immune reaction at low stimulatory levels during tumor growth. If, as seems probable, the growths of most autochthonous cancers are driven by a weak, but stimulatory immune reaction, some form of mitigation of immunity might sometimes be advantageous to therapy [Prehn & Prehn (2010)]. Alternatively, the use of very stringent immunization therapies, if they were possible, could, in certain cases, transform the weak and stimulatory immune reaction into a stronger and tumor-inhibitory immunological force. Both therapeutic possibilities should be used with care because both may run a real risk of doing harm. In effect, if the mitigation of immunity is attempted in a tumor system that is placed around ?d? in the IRC, the consequence could the movement to zones exhibiting greater tumor stimulation. Similarly, if an anti-tumor vaccine is attempted in a tumor system that is placed around ?b?, the consequence could the movement to zones exhibiting growth stimulatory effects if the vaccine-induced immunity is too weak to move the reaction into the tumor-inhibitory part of the IRC.   Finally, inasmuch as autochthonous tumors behave immunologically so differently from most isogeneic transplants, more experimental work in autochthonous systems, or at least in systems initiated with minimal tumor dosages, is much to be desired.