On April 6, Vera Rybko from Skoltech gave a lecture entitled “Cancer and Immunity” in Eltsin Center (Ekaterinburg). The lecture is a part of a joint project of Eltsin Center and Skoltech “Break down into molecules”. Vera explained what cancer is and how do malignant cells appear in an organism. She emphasized that the main cause of cancer are mutations, inherited or acquired, thus, one may consider cancer as a genomic disease. Vera gave an overview of the mechanisms that immune system uses in order to detect and kill malignant cells. She also explained why immune system may fail in cancer detection and how tumor cells avoid immune response. Vera also talked on the recent advances in cancer immunotherapy such as use of transgenic T lymphocytes and anticancer vaccines. Official page of the event.