T-Cell therapy

T-cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy that makes your immune cells, called T-cells, better able to attack cancer

Doctors collect some of your T-cells, grow large numbers of them in a lab, and then give them back to you through a drip in your vein.

There are two main types of T-cell transfer therapy:

• TIL therapy uses T cells called tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes that are found in your tumour. Doctors test these lymphocytes in the lab to find out which ones best recognise and destroy your tumour cells. Then, these selected lymphocytes are treated with substances that make them grow to large numbers quickly.
• CAR T-cell therapy is similar to TIL therapy, but your T cells are changed in the lab so that they make a type of protein known as CAR before they are grown and given back to you. CAR stands for chimeric antigen receptor. CARs are designed to allow the T cells to attach to specific proteins on the surface of the cancer cells, improving their ability to attack the cancer cells.

Also called adoptive cell therapy, adoptive immunotherapy, and immune cell therapy.