Figure 3.

Different schemes for adoptive transfer of autologous, vaccine-primed, in-vitro-expanded T cells. Patients are primed with tumor vaccine followed by lymphocyte harvest. Autologous T cells are harvested from peripheral blood (I) or draining lymph nodes (II), undergo polyclonal in vitro activation and expansion, and are reinfused after lymphodepleting chemotherapy. Antigen-specific immune function is measured subsequent to the administration of booster vaccines. (III) TILs can be isolated from resected surgical samples and expanded in vitro for adoptive transfer after lymphodepleting chemotherapy. Most adoptive transfer therapy approaches using TILs have involved the use of IL-2 infusion following T cell transfer in order to select tumor-specific T cells.