Why don't our immune cells detect and kill bowel cancer cells?

Bowel cancer cells have the ability to trick immune cells into leaving them alone to grow and propagate. — 123rf.com

Scientists are hopeful that a new method of treating bowel cancer can be found after their research solved a decades-long riddle of why the immune system of patients ignores the disease.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow and Cancer Research UK’s Beatson Institute have discovered how bowel cancer blinds the immune system so that it cannot see the cancer and renders it unable to destroy the tumour(s).