Abstract
In this rewiev, we first summarize current knowledge about the initiation of the immune response. We then discuss recent findigs on the role of immune system in protection from cancer.
We discuss the current understanding of the interactions beetween tumours and cells of the immune systems particularly at the early stages of carcinogenesis. A growing body of data suggests that these interavtions hellp sculpt the eventual development of tumours.
Recent data from humrn and mice studies celarly show that the immune system is capable of detecting and eliminating the smallest expansions of transformed cells,well before the development of clinical cancer.These advances suggest a need to change the current emphasis for harnessing anti-tumor immunity from thereapy of advanced disease to the immunotherapy of early lesions preferably even to the prevention of cancers.