The immune system wins many battles against pre-cancerous cells, suppressing them before they have a chance to become fully malignant. My suggestion is that, in its constant vigilance against pre-cancerous cells, the immune system sometimes goes too far and attacks harmless tissues, attacks the body’s own cells – and we call this an auto-immune disease. Could it be that the explanation of auto-immune diseases is that they are evidence of evolution’s work-in-progress on an effective weapon against cancer?
