Inflammation can be broadly understood as a successive immune response of an organism’s immune system towards nonnative or foreign antigens. This is a protective mechanism of the immune system, mediated by diverse immunological cells, to ensure homeostasis of an individual. | Turkish Journal of Biology Review Article Turk J Biol (2014) 38: 786-799 © TÜBİTAK doi: Failure of immunological cells to eradicate tumor and cancer cells: an overview 1 1 1 2 1, Rohit SHARMA , Daizee TALUKDAR , Parth MALIK , Tapan Kumar MUKHERJEE * Department of Biotechnology, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Ambala, India 2 Centre for Nano Sciences, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, India Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: Inflammation can be broadly understood as a successive immune response of an organism’s immune system towards nonnative or foreign antigens. This is a protective mechanism of the immune system, mediated by diverse immunological cells, to ensure homeostasis of an individual. Once activated, these immunological cells release a number of cytokines, chemokines, reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species, histamines, prostaglandins, and other materials leading to inflammation. Tumor cells express altered proteins due to mutations of their genes, DNA modifications such as histone modification, DNA methylation, or other mechanisms of altered protein expression. The body’s immunological cells actively recognize these altered proteins, now acting as tumor antigens, and eliminate the tumor cell; this is popularly known as tumor immunosurveillance. However, in unmanaged or inexorable circumstances, tumor cells escape from immunosurveillance mechanisms. This ultimately leads to the cascading events of cancer development and progression. T regulatory cells, tumor-associated macrophages, and myeloid-derived suppressor cells are pronounced cells involved in immunosuppression. These cells not only dodge the immune system’s surveillance but also significantly increase the survival, proliferation, and metastasis rates of tumor cells. They hinder T cytotoxic activation by secreting inhibitory .
