Question: what does 'interplay between the immune system and cancer cells' mean?

Alex Davenport answered on 15 Jun 2011:

Good question!
So the the immune system doesnt just protect us against harmful outside pathgens like bacteria and Viruses, it also protects us against internal problems like Cancer.
Now, The accepted theory of how the immune system works is that it can detect the difference between cells of your body, and foreign cells. So that could be cells from someone else or bacteria Viruses etc.
With this in mind, We know that cancerous cells are your own cells that have somehow lost the ability to die. Most cells die when they are told to by the immune system. However, Sometimes we have the case where the cell doesnt die, and cant be detected by the immune system because its a “self” cell. Interestingly, normally the immune system CAN realise that this “self” cell isn’t acting how it should, but to get around this, the cancer cell can the turn off cells that try to kill it, allowing it to grow and divide uncontrolled. So what I have worked on is looking at how the cancer cell (in my case a certain type of Leukaemia) interacts with the cells designed to kill it, how it turns it off, and if we can reverse it through drug therapy.