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>Becky said: Others are theortically killed by the immune system because Herceptin is an antibody that is "non self". The immune system attacks "non self" things so the immune system attacks the Herceptin (which is attached to a cancer cell) and anniliates both.
Thanks for the understandable explanation, Becky. So is that also how heart cells can be damaged? By the person's own immune system which is tricked into attacking the heart (whose cells have lots of HER2 receptors also)?
This also reminds us that the immune system does not recognize successful cancer. It's not the immune system that it as fault, it's that successful cancer is extremely clever at finding ways not to alert the immune system. The think that sometimes it can even recruit the immune system to help the cancer establish itself and/or grow. All the talk of "boosting the immune system" to fight cancer is on the wrong track, because of this fact. You can have the most robust immune system in the world but if you have a wiley and clever cancer, your immune system will bop on, heedless of its presence or even unwittingly assisting it. That's why vaccines might work - to try and trick the immune system into recognizing the stealthy cancer, so it will attack it. The cancer cells that you hear about that "everyone has in their body every day", that are killed by the immune system - that's true. Those cancers did not have that lethal ability to escape notice by the immune system. They were not a threat to life, for that reason.
Debbie Laxague
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