The National Cancer Institute's Center for Cancer Research began an early-phase clinical trial on adoptive cell transfer treatment effects on nine patients with metastatic cervical cancer (NCI, 2015). Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) has shown success in small trials for patients with melanoma and certain blood cancers; however, it has not been studied on cervical cancer patients. ACT is a form of immunotherapy that uses tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) to target tumor cells. In this trial, all patients have tumors that have a HPV causation. HPV tumors are known to produce specific proteins - E6 and E7(NCI, 2015). The T cells can recognize the proteins being produced and target the source of production. The patients underwent chemotherapy and then were given an infusion of the expanded T cells and IL-2. Of the nine patients in the study, two showed complete tumor disappearance and one showed tumor reduction over a short period of time. Although the study was very small, it does show impressive evidence that immunotherapy can be very beneficial in the fight against cancer and that this personalize therapeutic modality deserves further exploration (NCI, 2015).
why didn't they also use the Chimeric antigen receptor also known as CAR-T cell therapy? CAR-T cell therapy uses and genetically modifies the T cells from the patients blood. This method helps to express the chimeric receptor on the surface of the T cell. The receptors are then able "to attach to specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells" , once modified they can then attack the cancer cells (Immunotherapy: Using the Immune System to Treat Cancer,2015).
-Could animal tests be utilized for this type of experiment? if yes, have they been done? is yes, what were the results?
-What would happen if the patients were given the T cell infusion without the Chemotherapy? Would the infusion have any effect at all?
-Do you think the data set is large enough (9 people) to draw conclusions?