Definition of immune surveillance
: the monitoring process by which cells of the immune system (such as natural killer cells, cytotoxic T cells, or macrophages) detect and destroy premalignant or malignant cells in the body
Scientists believe the immune system culls cells whose genetic machinery has gone haywire; errant cells that escape immune surveillance can become self-replicating monsters.— David Stipp According to [Douglas] Hanahan and [Robert A.] Weinberg, one of the emerging hallmarks of cancer is the ability to escape immunosurveillance and an enabling characteristic for the acquisition of these capabilities is the inflammation propagated by the tumor.— Ioannis L. Aivaliotis et al.
broadly
: any monitoring process of the immune system that detects and destroys foreign substances, cells, or tissues
Once their bodies were no longer exposed regularly to the [HIV] virus, however, immune surveillance stopped, allowing latent pockets of the virus, which previously had not caused a full-blown infection, to multiply explosively. — Thomas H. Maugh
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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Time Traveler for immune surveillance
The first known use of immune surveillance was in 1965
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