Retroviral-Mediated Gene Transfer for Engineering Tumor-Reactive T-Cells

Immunotherapy for cancer has taken several approaches including vaccinating patients to elicit T-cell responses to tumor antigens and adoptive transfer of tumor-reactive T-cells to patients. Vaccination has historically been ineffective in generating objective clinical responses. Whereas adoptive cell transfer therapy has shown some promise, the difficulties in obtaining the large number of requisite tumor-reactive T-cells warrant investigation into alternate models of immunotherapy. A novel approach is the retroviral-mediated transfer of genes encoding recognition of tumor antigens into peripheral blood T-cells. By cloning genes for T-cell receptors that mediate antitumor reactivity and introducing them into a patient’s own T-cells, we can rapidly generate the large number of T-cells necessary for adoptive transfer therapy for any patient, regardless of the patient’s immune status.