Research
New directions in cellular therapy of cancer: a summary of the summit on cellular therapy for cancer
1 Department of Transfusion Medicine, Clinical Center, NIH, Bethesda, USA
2 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, USA
3 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network (CITN), Seattle, USA
4 National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute, NIH, Bethesda, USA
5 Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, USA
6 Fate Therapeutics, Inc,, San Diego, USA
7 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA
8 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
9 Center for Human Immunology, NIH, Bethesda, USA
10 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
11 Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, USA
12 Center for Regenerative Medicine, NIH, Bethesda, USA
13 National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Bethesda, USA
14 Leiden University Medical Center and Immune System Activation, Leiden, The Netherlands
Journal of Translational Medicine 2012, 10:48 doi:10.1186/1479-5876-10-48
Published: 15 March 2012Abstract
A summit on cellular therapy for cancer discussed and presented advances related to the use of adoptive cellular therapy for melanoma and other cancers. The summit revealed that this field is advancing rapidly. Conventional cellular therapies, such as tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), are becoming more effective and more available. Gene therapy is becoming an important tool in adoptive cell therapy. Lymphocytes are being engineered to express high affinity T cell receptors (TCRs), chimeric antibody-T cell receptors (CARs) and cytokines. T cell subsets with more naïve and stem cell-like characteristics have been shown in pre-clinical models to be more effective than unselected populations and it is now possible to reprogram T cells and to produce T cells with stem cell characteristics. In the future, combinations of adoptive transfer of T cells and specific vaccination against the cognate antigen can be envisaged to further enhance the effectiveness of these therapies.
