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Cancer vaccines are showing promise. Here’s how they work.
The immediate goal is to create vaccines that destroy cancer cells—but some scientists are also testing vaccines that might prevent someone from developing cancer.
A colored scanning electron micrograph of two T lymphocyte cells (yellow) attached to a cancer cell (green). T lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell and a component of the body's immune system. They recognize a specific target—an antigen—on the surface of the cancer cell and bind to it. Once a T-cell has bound to the cancer cell it can signal for other immune cells to destroy it.
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