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JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2004 96(9):651-653; doi:10.1093/jnci/96.9.651
© 2004 by Oxford University Press
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© 2004 Oxford University Press

NEWS

Natural Born Killers: NK Cells Drafted Into the Cancer Fight

Leslie Harris O’Hanlon

The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below.

Once thought of as foot soldiers in the body’s fight against cancer, natural killer (NK) cells are more akin to special forces in bolstering the immune system to respond to foreign invaders. New studies are revealing that rather than randomly killing cells—as was thought for many years—NK cells are programmed to seek out specific targets on cancer cells.


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  		A cancer cell surrounded by natural killer cells.

 
"For the past 25 years, we have been so preoccupied with understanding B and T cells. We thought the other cells were nonspecific," said Lewis Lanier, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of California at San Francisco. "That was extremely naive and an oversimplification. ... We are finding out natural killer cells are not so nonspecific, but quite sophisticated."

The immune system is made up of a series of highly choreographed white blood cells . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Many Receptors

Harnessing the Response

NK Cells on Trial


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