It is a persistent enigma why some cancer hosts are quite capable to keep their tumors at least temporarily under control and others surrender to malignant growth without a noticeable fight. In general, cancers successfully progress, despite their own antigenicity, in an environment of potentially lethal lymphocytes. Any routine immune therapy of cancer is eventually ineffective and this failure has been explained by insufficient effector functions. Properly activated effector T cells must be able to: migrate towards the tumor, enter, function in its microenvironment and trigger its rejection. It appears that most tumors possess an intrinsic resistance to both leukocyte infiltration and effector functions. Strategies aimed at successfully overcoming these two hurdles are being tested in experimental studies.
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