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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jun 24.
Published in final edited form as: J Nucl Med. 2008 Jun;49(0 2):180S–195S. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.107.045971

TABLE 1.

Major Effector Cells in Antitumor Immunity

Cell surface
marker		 Cell type Functions Support of
antitumor response
CD8 CTLs Induce apoptosis of infected and transformed cells Yes
Recognize foreign antigens presented by class I MHC (HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C)
CD4 Th1 (T helper 1) cells Amplify CTL response by secreting cytokines Yes
Recognize foreign antigens presented by class II MHC (HLA-DR)
Th2 (T helper 2) cells Amplify B-cell antibody response by secreting cytokines No
Recognize foreign antigens presented by class II MHC (HLA-DR)
Regulatory T cells Suppress effector cell functions of CTLs, Th1 cells, and Th2 cells No
Require antigen to become activated but will suppress immune responses against same or different antigens
NK1.1 Natural killer cells Induce apoptosis of infected and transformed cells Yes
Recognize all cells failing to display antigen-presenting molecules