Tumor-reactive T Cells Boosted By Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

... Treatment for skin cancer by infusion of tumor-reactive T cells requires patients to be pre-treated with agents that transiently decrease the number of immune cells (nonmyeloablative agents). A study in mice now indicates that pre-treatment with more intense immune cell--depleting strategies (known as myeloablative strategies) and a hematopoietic stem cell transplant enables infused tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells to increase in number more than pre-treatment with nonmyeloablative agents, and this correlates with increased tumor regression. ...