Sci-Tech

The world's first tumor infiltrating lymphocyte therapy has been released, and solid tumor treatment is expected to go further

2024-03-13   

According to the latest report released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization in February, the number of new cancer cases worldwide reached 20 million in 2022, and it is expected to exceed 35 million by 2050. Among the new cancer cases, solid tumor patients account for over 90%. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a T-cell therapy for the treatment of advanced melanoma, marking the official launch of the world's first tumor infiltrating lymphocyte therapy (TIL therapy). Injecting combat power into T cells can produce tumor cells every day in a normal human body, but not everyone will develop cancer. This is attributed to the immune cells in the human body, among which T cells play a crucial role. They are like special forces deep inside the enemy, constantly monitoring and eliminating tumor cells to protect human health. However, in the process of fighting against tumor cells, if the proliferation ability of tumor cells is too strong, limited by the tumor microenvironment and the insufficient number of T cells, "special forces" often find it difficult to eliminate the "enemy". T cells that have been fighting for too long will lose their combat power after being suppressed by immunosuppressive cells. These T cells that have lost their combat effectiveness will be diffusely distributed in tumor tissue, known as tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. "TIL therapy is the process of isolating tumor infiltrating lymphocytes from the patient's body, stimulating and amplifying them in vitro, and then re infusing them back to the patient to enhance the combat effectiveness of T cells against tumor cells." explained Wang Yi, Chief Physician of the Hematology Department of Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital and member of the Hematology and Oncology Professional Committee of the Chinese Anti Cancer Association. Due to the contact of these T cells with antigen information in the tumor cell membrane, So they can accurately identify and attack tumor cells. When the number of T cells is sufficient, tumor cells can be effectively eliminated. In addition to TIL therapy, another T-cell therapy CAR-T therapy has been on the market for many years both domestically and internationally. CAR-T therapy involves extracting T cells from the patient's peripheral blood and introducing tumor chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to T cells in vitro through genetic engineering. This is equivalent to installing a "radar" on T cells, allowing them to recognize tumor cells. Then, the modified T cells are transfused back into the patient's body to achieve precise identification and killing of tumor cells. However, CAR-T therapy faces multiple challenges in treating solid tumors. For example, solid tumors have complex targets and difficult localization; The dense tissue structure of solid tumors allows the modified T cells to only touch the surface tumor cells and be powerless against the internal tumor cells; The complex tumor microenvironment within solid tumors makes it difficult for modified T cells to survive and function effectively. "CAR-T therapy can be understood as artificially adding specific antigen receptors to normal T cells, allowing T cells to kill tumor cells in a targeted manner." Wu, Chief Physician of the Oncology Department of Meizhou People's Hospital and Vice Chairman of the Oncology Physician Branch of Guangdong Medical Association

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