A review of B lymphocytes in tumour immune response

Abstract

B cells have often been ignored in tumor immunology for years, with the idea that humoral and cytolytic responses work against each other; instead CD8+ T lymphocytes were focused on for tumor immunology, because of their ability to directly kill tumor cells. In studies conducted to date, the role of B lymphocytes in tumor immunity has been largely unclear, and the results from the research groups are controversial; nowadays, many antitumor responses of B cells have been determined and molecular mechanisms have been tried to be defined. B cells are phenotypically and functionally heterogeneous and have been reported to play an important role in the antitumor response. An understanding of the molecular mechanisms of B cells in tumor immunology and the characterization of the functions of B cells will help to develop new clinical strategies for cancer immunotherapy, as well as be a guide to predict the clinical outcomes of patients with carcinoma and to identify more effective treatments. *Correspondence to: Ceren Canbey Goret, Department of Surgical Pathology, Sancaktepe Research and Education Hospital, Health Sciences University, Floor 0, Istanbul, Turkey, Tel: +905079500212; E-mail: drcerencanbey@hotmail.com