ABSTRACT
Placed in perspective, adoptive cellular immunotherapy (ACI) has clearly been the one approach to cancer biotherapy that has generated the most interest and controversy in the past decade. Before ACI, no cancer biotherapy manipulation was able to reproducibly direct the immune system to eliminate cancer cells from the body. The close association of apheresis personnel, biotherapy nurses, technicians, preclinical researchers, surgeons, oncologists, and intensive care unit personnel is required for the successful execution of a single ACI treatment. As the limitations and toxic effects of ACI therapy are defined clinically, this should promote feedback to the level of preclinical ACI research teams to help define newer approaches to the problem. The lymphokine-activated killer- interleukin-2 therapy does not now seem to substantially influence most malignancies; moreover, a formal assessment of the affect of ACI therapy on cancer patient survival has not yet been performed.
