Immunotherapy with Non-Genetically Modified T Cells

Immunotherapy represents a promising modality for the treatment of patients with cancer and has emerged as the standard of care for some cancer types. The basis for immune-based approaches stems from studies demonstrating a significant role for T cells as evidenced by studies where the transfer of T cells from tumor-immunized animals to tumor-bearing animals resulted in the transfer of antitumor immunity. Significant advances in understanding and manipulating the immune response over the last decade have shown that tumor-associated antigens can be identified that elicit a robust T cell response in patients; thus, strategies to isolate and expand such T cells ex vivo would allow the adoptive transfer of an immune response capable of rejecting host tumor cells.