ABSTRACT
When a cancer is formed, the cells are reduced to their simplest form. These cells are primordial. DNA damage sends the cells back to a more primative state. The cells are no longer lung cells, liver cells, or skin cells, but a form of stem cell sent back in time to the embryonic environment. Once back there, the cells have a new mission. Differentiation of a cell is its ability to change into another type of cell (Schjeide and De Vellis 1970). For the fi rst time, cells have the ability to differentiate at an incredible rate. This differentiation is sometimes fueled by the immune system. The T lymphocyte is the major enforcer of the cellular immune system because of its ability to attack any foreign invader, including cancer cells. T cells recognize some of the cells and kill them, but what is left over may not be seen by the T cell immune system. The tumor mass has several different options when it comes to evading the immune system. The fi rst two are obvious: stopping the production of recognizable cancer proteins and stopping the production of the self-proteins needed by T cells to target cancer-specifi c proteins expressed by the cancer. This continual differentiation allows the cancer stem cell to thrive in the face of imminent attack by the T cell immune system (Schatton and Frank 2009).
