Abstract
For decades, cardiovascular diseases and tumours have been among the infamous diseases that most affect people around the world. Both are accompanied by characteristic immune manifestations, which are in principle identical, but differ in a number of essential aspects.
Even in the eighties of the last century, the prevailing opinion was that atherosclerosis had multifactorial genesis, i.e. that the causes and development of the pathological process in arteries resulting in the deposition of cholesteric plaque was contributed to several causes of the external and internal environment. External atherogenic causes included high energy intake (excessive consumption of animal fats and carbohydrates), lack of physical activity, smoking and polluted environment, whereas genetically determined defects of lipid metabolism represented endogenous factors.
Infectious causes and the role of immunity were practically not considered. The involvement of immunity in the tumour process has been the subject of reflection even since the early twentieth century.
At that time, immunity was only known to be directed against infectious agents, but virtually nothing was known about the structural nature and function of the immune system. Later on, it has been shown that immunity can have a dual function in connection to tumours: it destroys and suppresses tumour cells, but also promotes tumour growth by selecting more viable tumour cells.
It is just the participation of the immunity in the tumour process that enables new possibilities for treating tumours by providing biological therapy (immunotherapy).