WHEN CANCER CELLS GO VAMPIRE
New research shows some cancer cells act like tiny vampires, stealing energy from the very immune cells meant to destroy them
Studies published in Nature (2025) reveal that tumours extend microscopic ‘tunnels’ to siphon mitochondria (the cell’s power source) from T cells. Even worse, cancer cells sometimes replace these with their own damaged mitochondria, leaving immune cells drained, exhausted, and effectively invisible to the body’s defences.
By damaging immune cells this way, tumours can grow unchecked and resist even advanced treatments like immunotherapy. Scientists are now exploring ways to block these mitochondrial transfers, repair T cell energy, or combine these approaches with current therapies to make tumours visible to the immune system again.
It’s an exciting breakthrough, but for now it’s lab research only. Patients won’t see changes in treatment yet. Still, understanding this ‘vampire trick’ could shape future therapies that finally make more cancers vulnerable to treatments and our own immune systems.
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