Abstract

From its humble beginning in the 19th century, immunotherapy for cancer has emerged as a prospective curative approach in the last decade. Currently, different immunotherapies are being used in the clinic including monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), adoptively transferred T cells and cancer vaccines. Of these immunotherapies, MAbs are the most widely used, however their efficacy is restricted by their limited biodistribution, and reliance on antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity and/or complement-mediated cell death, which can be impaired in cancer patients. In contrast, adoptively transferred T cells have the capacity to effectively traffic to tumor sites, recruit multiple cellular and humoral effector mechanisms, and persist for many years. In this chapter, we review T cell based immunotherapy for cancer, describe its current clinical impact, and discuss approaches that aim to combine T cells with other cancertargeted therapies.