To evaluate the safety, immune responses, and antitumor responses after the administration of α-galactosylceramide (αGalCer) KRN7000-pulsed PBMC cultured with IL-2 and GM-CSF (IL-2/GM-CSF-cultured PBMCs), a phase I-II study in patients with non-small cell lung cancer was conducted. Patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer or recurrent lung cancer refractory to the standard therapy were eligible. αGalCer-pulsed IL-2/GM-CSF-cultured PBMCs (1 × 109/m2) were i.v. administered four times. Immune responses were monitored weekly. Twenty-three patients were enrolled in this study and 17 cases (73.9%) completed. No severe adverse event related to the treatment was observed. After the injection of αGalCer-pulsed IL-2/GM-CSF-cultured PBMCs, an increased number of IFN-γ-producing cells in the peripheral blood were detected in 10 patients (58.8%). Five cases remained as stable disease, and the remaining 12 cases were evaluated as progressive disease. The estimated median survival time (MST) of the 17 cases was 18.6 mo (range, 3.8 to 36.3 mo). Ten patients who displayed increased IFN-γ-producing cells (≥2-fold) showed prolonged MST (31.9 mo; range, 14.5 to 36.3 mo) as compared with poor-responder patients (n = 7) MST (9.7 mo; range, 3.8 to 25.0 mo) (log-rank test, p = 0.0015). The administration of αGalCer-pulsed IL-2/GM-CSF-cultured PBMCs was well tolerated and was accompanied by the successful induction of NKT cell-dependent immune responses. The increased IFN-γ-producing cells that result from αGalCer stimulation in PBMCs were significantly associated with prolonged MST. These results are encouraging and warrant further evaluation for survival benefit of this immunotherapy.

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Coexistence of FTCs resulted in a further negative impact on postoperative prognosis among MPC-positive adenocarcinomas and should be considered for upstaging the p-T factor and during evaluation of surgical margins.

Cerebral infarction occurs at a high frequency in patients who undergo left upper lobectomy for lung cancer. Thrombosis in the left superior pulmonary-vein stump might cause cerebral infarction.

Immunotherapy is one of the most promising and innovative approaches to treat cancer, viral infections, and other immune-modulated diseases. Adoptive immuno-therapy using gene-modified T cells is an exciting and rapidly evolving field. Exploiting knowledge of basic T cell biology and immune cell receptor function has fostered innovative approaches to modify immune cell function. Highly translatable clinical technologies have been developed to redirect T cell specificity by introducing designed receptors. The ability to engineer T cells to manifest desired phenotypes and functions is now a thrilling reality. In this review, we focus on outlining different varieties of genetically engineered T cells, their respective advantages and disadvantages as tools for immunotherapy, and their promise and drawbacks in the clinic.