Adoptive T cell immunotherapy for cancer

Karlo Perica; Juan Carlos Varela; Mathias Oelke; Jonathan Schneck

doi:10.5041/RMMJ.10179

Adoptive T cell immunotherapy for cancer

Rambam Maimonides Med J. 2015 Jan 29;6(1):e0004. doi: 10.5041/RMMJ.10179. eCollection 2015 Jan.

Authors

Karlo Perica¹, Juan Carlos Varela², Mathias Oelke³, Jonathan Schneck⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; ; Institute of Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA;
² Institute of Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; ; Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA;
³ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; ; Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA;
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; ; Institute of Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; ; Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; ; Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; ; Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA ; Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Abstract

Harnessing the immune system to recognize and destroy tumor cells has been the central goal of anti-cancer immunotherapy. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in optimizing this technology in order to make it a clinically feasible treatment. One of the main treatment modalities within cancer immunotherapy has been adoptive T cell therapy (ACT). Using this approach, tumor-specific cytotoxic T cells are infused into cancer patients with the goal of recognizing, targeting, and destroying tumor cells. In the current review, we revisit some of the major successes of ACT, the major hurdles that have been overcome to optimize ACT, the remaining challenges, and future approaches to make ACT widely available.

Keywords: Adoptive T cell transfer; T cell engineering; cancer immunotherapy.

Publication types

Review

Abstract

Publication types

Grants and funding