On March 26, 2012, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine reported study results that showed human tumors transplanted into laboratory mice disappeared or shrank when scientists treated the animals with a single antibody. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The antibody works by masking a protein flag on cancer cells that protects them from macrophages and other cells in the immune system. The scientists achieved the findings with human breast, ovarian, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate cancer samples.