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Nature Medicine 15, 731–732 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nm0709-731

Tumor immunotherapy: making an immortal army

Brent H. Koehn & Stephen P. Schoenberger

The Greek historian Herodotus tells of an elite corps of Persian warriors who fought the vastly outnumbered Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE. Herodotus called these fabled Persians the “immortals,” because as each man fell to disease or injury, he was immediately replaced by another well-trained soldier, maintaining the numbers of the force at a constant strength.