Immune memory cells in ovarian cancer produce tumor-targeting antibodies, opening a vaccine path

While we tend to quickly forget having been ill or having received a vaccine, the immune system remembers remarkably well. It has memory B cells—"trained" immune cells that circulate throughout the body in search of harmful invaders they have encountered previously; these cells can rapidly deploy targeted weapons when faced with a pathogen again. Now, researchers from Prof. Ziv Shulman's laboratory at the Weizmann Institute of Science report that activated memory B cells can also recognize an internal enemy: cancer cells.