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Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) of autologous tumor‐infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) to treat malignant melanoma: the dawn of a chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR‐T) cell therapy from autologous donor
Author(s) -
Roncati Luca,
Palmieri Beniamino
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-4632
pISSN - 0011-9059
DOI - 10.1111/ijd.14945
Subject(s) - medicine , chimeric antigen receptor , melanoma , tumor infiltrating lymphocytes , adoptive cell transfer , immunotherapy , cell therapy , cytotoxic t cell , malignancy , t cell , cancer research , immunology , pathology , cell , immune system , biology , genetics , biochemistry , in vitro
Background Tumor‐infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are B, T‐helper, and T‐cytotoxic lymphocytes migrated from the blood or lymph stream toward a tumor with the aim to infiltrate and destroy it. They can be histologically graded as brisk, nonbrisk, or absent. Malignant melanoma has been the first malignancy found to be correlated with TILs status, being brisk TILs associated with better clinical outcomes. By the terminology of “adoptive cell transfer” (ACT), the medical oncology refers to the transfer of cells in a tumor‐bearing patient from the same recipient or a healthy donor. Methods A PubMed literature search on the topic has been performed. Additional documents known to the authors and identified from the reference list of cited publications have been included. Results In the past, autologous TILs ACT was successfully tested for the treatment of malignant melanoma and, today, it is a standardized procedure in several centers around the world. It represents the first research step toward the bioengineered chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR‐T) cell therapy from autologous donor. Conclusions Both autologous TILs ACT and CAR‐T cell therapy from autologous donor exploit the anticancer power of targeted self‐lymphocytes, but CAR‐T cell technology also virtually allows treatment of those melanomas devoid of TILs or with so few cytotoxic TILs that are difficult to identify.