Cancer is any malignant growth or tumour caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division. The immune system of our body can fight infections because it identifies pathogens as 'foreign' and destroys them. But our immune system cannot destroy cancer cells. This is because, with some major exceptions, cancer cells generally have all of the same antigens as the rest of our cells, so any immune cells that would have been activated by their antigens are not around to react. Several research groups have been looking into the possibility of training our immune system into attacking cancer cells, or cancer immunotherapy.
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