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Appeal to killer cells promotes cancer defense: German immunologists

Xinhua, June 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Many tumors are colonized by special cells of the innate immune system, the eosinophils, which actually improve the cancer defense, said immunologists from the German Cancer Research Center on Wednesday.

The result may help develop more effective immunotherapies against cancer, according to the German Cancer Research Center.

As the German immunologists found out, eosinophils release chemical attractants that attract the professional killers of the immune into cancerous tissue. These so-called CD8 T-cells are then to actually attack the tumor.

"We have solved here a more than 100-year-old mystery and demonstrated that eosinophils set off cancer defense through a molecular appeal," said study leader Guenter Haemmerling.

"This knowledge gives us the opportunity to improve cellular immunotherapies against cancer significantly, by directing more T-cells in the tumor," he said.

The result has been published in the journal Nature Immunology. Endit