Adoptive T Cell Therapy Stops Melanoma Growth

A study has shown that adoptive T cell therapy--the isolation, cloning, stimulation and re-injection of antitumor specific T cells--was effective in stopping melanoma growth or even causing shrinkage of the tumor. The study was published November 11, 2002, in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, WA, USA) worked with a group of 10 melanoma patients. CD8+ T cells were extracted from each patient and cloned. The cloned cells were expanded in tissue culture and re-injected into the patient along with the lymphokine IL-2. Although IL-2 can be toxic in high doses, the patients showed little reaction to the low dose of IL-2 used.
The adoptively transferred T cell clones persisted in the patients in response to the low dose of IL-2. The T cells preferentially traveled to tumor sites and mediated an antigen-specific immune response characterized by the elimination of antigen-positive tumor cells, regression of individual metastases, and minor, mixed, or stable responses in eight of the 10 patients with refractory, metastatic disease for up to 21 months.
"While we did not expect to cure the cancers, the technique appears to benefit patients by curbing the spread of their tumors,” said first author Dr. Cassian Yee, a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.”



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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center