Fig 3. NAT hypothesis applied to the equilibrium phase of immunoediting.

If the immune system cannot fully eliminate cancer cells, it could adopt NAT to limit impact on fitness through an equilibrium phase. During this phase, the immune system could maintain a stable tumor burden to increase intratumor competition and therefore delay the apparition of immuno-resistant cells. CTL, cytotoxic T cells; DC, dendritic cells; NAT, natural adaptive therapy; TAM, tumor-associated macrophages; Treg, regulatory T lymphocytes.