• Question: How do our bodies fight cancer? Does it serve a purpose?

    Asked by shrimpiesoup to Mario, Alexis, Dr D, Helen, Jasmine on 19 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by vinitha, pranay900.
    • Photo: Alexis Barr

      Alexis Barr answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      You have pinpointed the exact problem with cancer treatment here. Your immune system works by recognising cells and proteins that are foreign to your body – like bacteria, viruses and toxins. This then activates the immune system which can get rid of these cells or your cells that have been infected with virus.

      The problem with cancer is that cancer cells come from your healthy cells. Due to mutations in their DNA, cancer cells start to reproduce out of control but otherwise they look very similar to healthy cells. Therefore, the immune system doesn’t recognise them and so isn’t activated.

      The immune system can help however. When people with cancer have treatment – such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy, this starts to kill some cancer cells. When cells start to die they send out a chemical signal that then stimulates the immune response to clear away the dead cells. This can help get rid of cancer cells.

    • Photo: Andrew Devitt

      Andrew Devitt answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      You might be surprised to know that your immune system is fighting potential cancer cells all day everyday and it is probably doing it right now!

      Cancer cells are super healthy and divide well but they also do have some changes on them which can be detected by our immune system. These cells of ours tell the potentially cancerous cells to die. Then they commit suicide!

      This is great until the cancer cells get more mutations and ignore the instructions to die.

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