The power of combining adoptive cell therapy (ACT) and pathogen-boosted vaccination to treat solid tumors

ABSTRACT

Recent advancements in adoptive cell therapy (ACT) are opening up new frontiers for cancer immunotherapy. CAR T cells targeting CD19 have emerged as a remarkable T cell-based therapy for the successful treatment of certain types of leukemia and lymphomas. Despite these clinical successes, as well as significant breakthroughs in T cell engineering, the treatment of solid tumors with ACT remains a relentless challenge. Thus, the current consensus of the field is that an urgent need exists for the design of innovative approaches that can improve the efficacy of ACT in treating solid cancers while maintaining a high degree of reliability and safety.

KEYWORDS:

• engineered adoptive cell therapy
• pathogen-boosted vaccination

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Funding

This work is supported by NIH grants AI125741 (W. C.), 5T32HL007209 (R. Z.).