Denise Faustman and Chuck Coe of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston successfully transplanted human pancreatic islets or liver cells into 25 mice after treating the tissues with antibody fragments that bind harmlessly to HLA class
I antigens -- the molecules that alert the patrolling T-cells to a foreign presence.
He suggests cancer cells may evade the host immune system by omitting one group of these proteins, called class I antigens, from cell surfaces.
Another approach to the problem is to enhance the immune system's sensitivity to the scarce class I antigens that may be present on malignant cells.