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Coventry BJ, Ashdown M, Henneberg M, et al. The Immune System and Responses to Cancer: Coordinated Evolution. F1000Res. 2015;4:552doi: 10.12688/f1000research.6718.1.
Coventry, B. J., Ashdown, M., Henneberg, M., & Davies, P. C. W. (2015). The Immune System and Responses to Cancer: Coordinated Evolution. F1000Research, 4552. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.6718.1
Coventry, Brendon J, et al. "The Immune System and Responses to Cancer: Coordinated Evolution." F1000Research vol. 4 (2015): 552. doi: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.6718.1
Coventry BJ, Ashdown M, Henneberg M, Davies PCW. The Immune System and Responses to Cancer: Coordinated Evolution. F1000Res. 2015 Aug 12;4:552. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.6718.1. eCollection 2015. PMID: 33365125; PMCID: PMC7735224.
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F1000Res. 2015 Aug 12;4:552. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.6718.1. eCollection 2015.

The Immune System and Responses to Cancer: Coordinated Evolution.

F1000Research

Brendon J Coventry, Martin Ashdown, Maciej Henneberg, Paul C W Davies

Affiliations

  1. Discipline of Surgery, Royal Adelaide Hospital, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Autralia, 5000, Australia.
  2. CSO Biotempus Ltd, Melbourne, 3003, Australia.
  3. Biological Anthropology and Comparative Anatomy Unit, School of Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia.
  4. Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Center for the Convergence of Physical Science and Cancer Biology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.

PMID: 33365125 PMCID: PMC7735224 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.6718.1

Abstract

This review explores the evolutionary interaction and co-development between immune system and somatic evolution. Over immense durations, continuous interactions between microbes, aberrant somatic cells, including malignant cells, and the immune system have successively shaped the evolutionary development of the immune system, somatic cells and microorganisms through continuous adaptive symbiotic processes of progressive immunological and somatic change providing what we observe today. The immune system is powerful enough to remove cancer and induce long-term cures. Our knowledge of how this occurs is just emerging. It is less clear why the immune system would detect cancer cells, when it is usually focused on combatting infection. Here we show the connections between immunity, infection and cancer, by searching back in time hundreds of millions of years and more to when multi-cellular organisms first began, and the immune system eventually evolved into the truly brilliant and efficient protective mechanism, the importance of which we are just beginning to now understand. What we do know is that comprehending these points will likely lead to more effective cancer therapies.

Copyright: © 2015 Coventry BJ et al.

Keywords: Immune system; cancer; evolution; immune response; immunosurveillance; immunotherapy; mutation

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial competing interests, nor any conflicts of interests.

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