Attempts are being made to develop new immunotherapeutic techniques for the treatment of advanced cancer. A variety of animal models are being used to test the effects of lymphokine activated killer cells, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and combinations of lymphokines including interleukin-2, tumor necrosis factor and alpha-interferon in the treatment of experimental animal tumors. Current research is attempting to define the factors necessary for achieving successful adoptive immunotherapy in experimental animal models. A variety of clinical trials are also in progress exploring the application of new adoptive immunotherapies to patients with advanced cancer. Clinical trials are exploring the value of lymphokine activated killer cells and interleukin-2, high-dose interleukin-2 alone, the combination of alpha-interferon and interleukin-2, the combination of interleukin-2 and tumor necrosis factor, and the value of colony stimulating factors in cancer treatment. Newer efforts are directed at transducing new genes into tumor infiltrating lymphocytes that can increase their therapeutic effectiveness and clinical trials using these cells have been initiated.
