What are metastasized cancer cells?
Metastasized cancer cells are cancer cells that have migrated away from its tumor primary site with the tolerance of the immune system. These cancer cells are usually characterized by their expression or over-expression of self-recognition molecular patterns for lymphocytes including major histocompatibility complex II (MHC II). Thus, the immune system will not restrict these cancer cells’ movement in the body since they may have both local tissue self-recognition molecular patterns (MHC I) and lymphocyte self-recognition molecular patterns (MHC II). Metastasized tumors are detrimental since they grow very fast and can exhaust a patient’s nutrients in a short period of time to starve the patient to death.
