Hi, my team and I are researching about the effects stress has on cancer and we would like to know at which moment the cancer becomes unstoppable.
"When cells with an immunogenic antigen were present at about 10% of the total number of cells, the tumors could still be killed. But when the proportion of cells with an immunogenic antigen was less than 1% of the total, the tumor wasn’t killed. “It was still there three weeks later,” Dr. Gejman says.
The scientists aren’t sure why the proportion of cells bearing a particular neoantigen — what they call the clonal fraction — matters. But they do have some ideas. One is that when a neoantigen is present at a low frequency in a tumor, T cells aren’t activated and prompted to look for cells displaying it. Another idea is that the T cells are in fact activated but can’t find their target amidst a sea of irrelevant antigens" writes David A. Scheinberg physician-scientist
https://www.mskcc.org/blog/immune-system-can-fight-cancer-so-why-doesn-t-it
I am not sure one can give a defined number for ALL tumors. It depends upon how quickly the tumor cells are proliferating, where the tumor is located and how quickly mutants are generated..
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Physiology
- Physiological Processes
- Stress