Fig. 1.

T cell-based cancer immunotherapies. Summarisation of T cell-based immunotherapies for cancer treatment including genetically modified CAR-T cell, TCR-T cell, and TILs therapy, ICIs, and cancer vaccines. 1) TCR-T cell therapy introduces a novel TCR gene into patients-derived T cells, so that engineered TCR molecules can recognize peptides presented on MHC molecules. Of note, TCR-T cell therapy is human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-restricted. 2) CAR-T cell therapy is based on genetic introduction of CARs into autologous T cells. CARs integrate both antigen-binding and costimulatory domains, offering the independence from TCR and HLA restriction. 3) In TILs therapy, tumours are resected from patients, and TILs are isolated and expanded ex vivo. TILs therapy ensures that each antigen from the patients is pre-matched to extracted lymphocytes. 4) ICIs use antibody to inhibit the suppressive signals in T cells featured by PD-1 and CTLA-4, improving T cell priming, proliferation, and cytotoxicity. Novel immune checkpoint combinations, combination of ICIs with targeted therapies, radiation, oncovirus further broaden the application of ICIs. 5) Cancer vaccines activate innate immune system by presenting cancer antigens to immune cells, enabling them to accurately and efficiently recognize tumour cells