Understanding Your Immune System

Women dealing with breast cancer inevitably wonder: Did I get breast cancer because my immune system was weakened by stress, or by the wrong food? Can my immune system fight breast cancer? Will surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy reduce my body's ability to fight breast cancer and infections? How can I fortify my immune system to become as healthy as possible?

In this section, you'll learn:

• how your immune system works to protect you

• what you can to do to strengthen your immune system once cancer has been diagnosed

• how scientists are working to reinforce the immune system's ability to fight cancer and to invent new immune system defense mechanisms

The medical experts for Understanding Your Immune System are:

• Jennifer J. Griggs, M.D., MPH, medical oncologist/hematologist, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

• Marisa Weiss, M.D., breast radiation oncologist, Thomas Jefferson University Health System, Philadelphia, PA

These experts are members of the breastcancer.org Professional Advisory Board, including more than 60 medical experts in breast cancer-related fields.