Do NK cells play a role in anti-tumor surveillance?

Abstract

A class of lymphocytes found in several mammalian species including man will kill cells of many tumor lines invitro(1-4). There is growing evidence, derived mainly from the work of Kiessling and co-workers, that these natural killer (NK) cells play a role in surveillance against tumor developmentin vivo. In this article John Roder and Tina Haliotis discuss a hypothesis for anti-tumor surveillance which integrates all of the potentially important immunological systems in the host and gives to NK cells the role of foremost barrier against developing tumors.