ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the evidence to support or refute the hypothesis that the efficacy of adoptively transferred effector cells to mediate antitumor effects in vivorequires localization in tumors or tumor-bearing organs. Several groups have reported that the tissue distribution of adoptively transferred, interleukin-2 (IL-2)-stimulated unsensitized lymphocytes, designated lymphokine-activated killer cells, differs markedly from unstimulated lymphocytes. Since both natural killer (NK) cells and some T lymphocytes can be induced by IL-2 to develop into IL-2-activated killer cells, ability of these two subpopulations to disseminate in vivo adoptive transfer. In order to interpret the data regarding distribution of these two cell types after IL-2 stimulation. It is useful to recognize that the in vivo localization patterns for NK cells are different from those of T lymphocytes, even when both are unstimulated. There have been numerous reports that adoptive transfer of IL-2-stimulated unsensitized lymphocytes to tumor-bearing rodents and human cancer patients has been therapeutically beneficial.
