About the Cover
Some patients with early stage non–small cell lung cancer never develop metastatic disease. Autoantibodies isolated from these individuals bind to a cryptic epitope of a complement-blocking protein called complement factor H (CFH). In the presence of CFH, cells are protected from complement killing. Given that the CFH epitope to which the autoantibodies bind is not normally exposed, these autoantibodies may be interfering with CFH only within tumors, relieving the block to complement, and making it possible to kill cancer cells that would otherwise be protected. The cover art (left) was inspired by the micrograph (right) of autoantibodies to CFH binding to the lung cancer cell line A549, and detected with AlexaFluor 647–conjugated anti-human IgG. Fluorescence micrograph image taken by Rebekah Dumm (Duke University Medical Center); artwork by Lewis Long. Read more about these autoantibodies in Campa et al., page 1325 in this issue of Cancer Immunology Research.