Through ongoing research, cancer treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy continue to improve. But many scientists have long believed that a person's own immune system—if helped to function optimally—could offer a new approach to treating cancer.

When the immune system is working well, it recognizes abnormal cells and infectious agents, such as viruses and harmful bacteria. After detecting the abnormal cells, immune system cells called T cells attack and destroy them.

When people have cancer, however, the cells (cancer) have ways of avoiding detection by the immune system. As a result, the cancer cells are able to grow and spread without being attacked.

The key to developing cancer immune therapies, experts suggest, is to find ways to boost the immune system's ability to recognize cancer cells in the body.

One promising area of research focuses on antigen presenting cells (APCs), known to play a major role in starting and regulating immune responses.

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Illustration: Jump-starting the immune response against prostate cancer