There and back again: Translating adoptive cell therapy to canine cancer and improving human treatment

Abstract

Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) is a burgeoning therapeutic modality within human immuno‐oncology. Novel approaches towards ACT are being developed in the pre‐clinical setting faster than they can be evaluated in human clinical trials. Many of the therapeutic approaches used in human medicine have already been evaluated to some degree in canine patients. While this form of immunotherapy in veterinary medicine is still in its infancy, as these approaches develop, canine ACT will become a tool for both the veterinary oncologist and the translational researcher. This review details canine ACT trials to date, with attention given to the precedents provided by human oncology.

Limited Clinical Efficacy with Potential Adverse Events in a Pilot Study of Autologous Adoptive Cell Therapy in Canine Oral Malignant Melanoma

“…Another kind of immunotherapy, adoptive cell therapy (ACT), or adoptive cell transfer, involves the ex vivo generation and expansion of lymphocytes and the subsequent reinfusion of those lymphocytes into cancer patients to achieve therapeutic effects in both human and veterinary cancer fields [6]. Different kinds of lymphocytes can be employed for ACT, including tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) obtained from tumor tissue, expanded and activated peripheral blood-derived lymphocytes, or lymphocytes engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) [7].…”