[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2021\/11\/immune-therapy-adoptive-cell-transfer\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2021\/11\/immune-therapy-adoptive-cell-transfer\/","headline":"Immune Therapy Using Adoptive Cell Transfer","name":"Immune Therapy Using Adoptive Cell Transfer","description":"TIL therapy, a form of adoptive cell transfer, may change the treatment paradigm in hard-to-treat solid cancers.","datePublished":"2021-11-18","dateModified":"2022-04-26","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/hillman.upmc.com\/","name":"UPMC Hillman Cancer Center","url":"https:\/\/hillman.upmc.com\/","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/upmc-hillman-cancer-center\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Liver-Cancer-Symptoms-Causes-Treatment.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Liver-Cancer-Symptoms-Causes-Treatment.jpg","height":325,"width":754},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2021\/11\/immune-therapy-adoptive-cell-transfer\/","about":["Cancer Care","Health Topics A-Z"],"wordCount":635,"articleBody":"One of the most important medical advances in recent decades is that doctors can now use patients’ immune systems to fight cancer. Immunotherapy is the name for this type of treatment.In most forms of immunotherapy, drugs boost your immune system so it can attack cancer cells. Now, doctors can also use your own immune cells to fight cancer. Scientists call this form of immunotherapy adoptive cell transfer or adoptive cellular therapy.First, doctors harvest a specific type of cell from your body. The type they choose depends on what form of cancer you have. Then they grow the cells in a lab, so they can select the ones that are best able to fight the type of tumor you have. When they have enough of these cells, doctors infuse them back into your body.Once back in the body, the cells continue to multiply while attacking cancer cells.Exploring TIL TherapyOne type of adoptive cell transfer uses the patient’s lymphocytes. These white blood cells help fight infection. They also eliminate damaged cells.As cancers grow, lymphocytes identify the tumor as abnormal. The lymphocytes try to enter the tumor cells. Doctors refer to these lymphocytes as tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs.Udai Kammula, MD, Director of UPMC’s Solid Tumor Cell Therapy Program, explains that tumors can prevent TILs from doing their job. \u201cThe tumor is really quite a formidable foe,” he says. \u201cTumors have developed unique strategies to either evade these cells or in some cases just starve them or kill them.”‘Hungry’ TILsBut when TILs grow in the lab away from the tumor, they multiply rapidly. Doctors start with a small sample of the patient’s tumor, sliced up into small fragments. They include cell nutrients to help the TILs grow. The doctors select the TILs that show the most antitumor activity.After several weeks, the TILs grow to about 100 billion cells. Dr. Kammula says the cells are \u201chighly activated and hungry,” ready to return to the patient’s body.Rebooting the Immune SystemWhile the TILs are growing, doctors give a specific chemotherapy designed to knock out the patient’s immune system. \u201cIf your computer has a virus, sometimes the best thing to do is to wipe the hard drive clean and start over,” Dr. Kammula says. \u201cReboot the immune system, is what I tell patients.”Once the chemotherapy suppresses the immune system, the patient receives an intravenous infusion of their TILs. \u201cWe literally can see these tumors shrinking before the patient leaves the hospital at the end of a week.” Dr. Kammula says.In clinical trials, TIL therapy has a response rate of more than 50% in patients with cutaneous melanoma. These same trials show a long-term complete response rate of about 25%. This provides a great deal of hope to patients whose traditional therapies have failed.What’s Ahead for TIL TherapyBased on these results, Dr. Kammula’s team is developing TIL therapy for other hard-to-treat cancers. These include:Pancreatic cancer.Mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer.Uveal melanoma, a rare cancer of the eye.And they’re seeing encouraging results.Dr. Kammula credits TILs’ ability to attack hard-to-reach tumors for the successes so far.\u201cWhen you put living, breathing cells like TILs into the bloodstream, they go wherever blood goes,” he says. \u201cWe’ve not seen an obstacle, even with tumors in a tiny nook or crevasse.”These advantages are particularly important when treating solid tumors that have spread. \u201cThese are exactly the types of cancers that have been so hard to cure with conventional therapies,” he explains.Dr. Kammula remains optimistic about TIL therapy. \u201cEvery single day I come to work is an exciting day,” he says. \u201cAs I tell the people in the lab, we’re doing things that no one has ever done before.”"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2021","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2021\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"11","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2021\/\/11\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Immune Therapy Using Adoptive Cell Transfer","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2021\/11\/immune-therapy-adoptive-cell-transfer\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]