adoptive cell therapy

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a form of cancer immunotherapy in which immune cells — typically T-cells — are collected from a patient or donor, expanded or engineered outside the body, and then infused back into the patient to attack cancer cells; adoptive cell therapies include tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy, in which T-cells naturally present within a tumour are extracted, expanded, and reinfused; CAR-T cell therapy, in which T-cells are engineered to express chimeric antigen receptors targeting tumour antigens; and T-cell receptor therapy, in which T-cells are engineered to express high-affinity T-cell receptors against specific tumour antigens; CAR-T therapies targeting CD19 have achieved remarkable rates of complete remission in relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies and multiple myeloma, representing one of the most significant advances in oncology of the past decade; challenges include manufacturing complexity, cost, accessibility in low-resource settings, and the development of effective therapies for solid tumours