Attempts are being made to develop new immunotherapy and gene therapy of patients with advanced cancer. A variety of animal models are being used to test the effects of lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) 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. Efforts are directed at transducing new genes into tumor infiltrating lymphocytes that can increase their therapeutic effectiveness. Marker genes coding for neomycin phosphotransferase have been transduced into TIL. More recently genes coding for tumor necrosis factor (TNF) have been transduced and expressed in TIL. Cytokine genes are being inserted into tumors to increase their immunogenicity. Attempts to use adoptive immunotherapy approaches to the treatment of patients with AIDS are being explored. 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, combinations of cytokines, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and gene modified tumor infiltrating lymphocytes.
