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Review
. 2021 Jun 11;19(1):140.
doi: 10.1186/s12916-021-02006-4.

Perspectives of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte treatment in solid tumors

Shuhang Wang #  1 , Jingwei Sun #  2 , Kun Chen #  3 , Peiwen Ma  1 , Qi Lei  1 , Shujun Xing  1 , Zhongzheng Cao  2 , Shujun Sun  4 , Zicheng Yu  5 , Yarong Liu  6 , Ning Li  7
Affiliations
Review

Perspectives of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte treatment in solid tumors

Shuhang Wang et al. BMC Med. .

Abstract

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is a type of adoptive cellular therapy by harvesting infiltrated lymphocytes from tumors, culturing and amplifying them in vitro and then infusing back to treat patients. Its diverse TCR clonality, superior tumor-homing ability, and low off-target toxicity endow TIL therapy unique advantages in treating solid tumors compared with other adoptive cellular therapies. Nevertheless, the successful application of TIL therapy currently is still limited to several types of tumors. Herein in this review, we summarize the fundamental work in the field of TIL therapy and the current landscape and advances of TIL clinical trials worldwide. Moreover, the limitations of the current TIL regimen have been discussed and the opportunities and challenges in the development of next-generation TIL are highlighted. Finally, the future directions of TIL therapy towards a broader clinical application have been proposed.

Keywords: Cancer treatment; Clinical trials; Gene editing; Immunotherapy; Tumor infiltration lymphocyte.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic representation of the production process for TIL therapy. After tumor excision from the patient, tumor is digested into small fragments or a single cell suspension and then expanded in culture with IL-2. In the “selected TIL” approach, expanded cells are selected by their recognition of autologous tumor cells; on the contrary, the “young TIL” approach leaves out this selection step. Then, the TIL culture is expanded to a clinically relevant level and infused back into the patient
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Analysis of numbers of clinical trials on TIL therapy worldwide by year and clinical stage. Data were obtained from PharmaProjects database
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Status and regional disparities in clinical studies of TIL therapies. (Left) The current status of all TIL clinical trials. (Right) Comparison of the geographic localization of TIL clinical trials worldwide. The numbers of trials in each category followed by its percentage among total trials is shown. Data were obtained from PharmaProjects database
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Analysis of TIL clinical trials by treatment line and tumor type. (Left) The percentage of TIL clinical trials applied as different treatment lines. (Right) Number of TIL clinical trials on different tumor types. Data were obtained from PharmaProjects database
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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