Breast tumor size increases when DCs and T cells team up (red).

On page 1037, Aspord et al. find that immune cells are swayed to the dark side by cancerous forces. Instead of priming a killing response, dendritic cells (DCs) that infiltrate breast tumors actually help the tumor grow.

The group previously found that human breast tumors often include a large number of mature dendritic cells that form clusters with CD4+ T cells. This association suggested that immunity was at work in the tumor, but it also hinted at an oddity: mature DCs are normally found in lymph nodes, not the affected tissue.

To figure out what these DCs were doing in the tumors, Aspord and colleagues studied humanized mice that were grafted with human breast cancer cell lines. In these mice, the DCs recruited CD4+ T cells to the tumors but...

The Rockefeller University Press
2007
The Rockefeller University Press
2007
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