Abstract

Strategies that enhance the efficacy of adoptive therapy involve intrinsic factors such as the selection of desired effector cells and extrinsic factors such as patient conditioning. Ex vivo expanded antigen-specific T cell clones allows us to evaluate these factors in clinical trials for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. In one trial, adoptively transferred antigen-specific CD8+ T cell clones were examined in patients following Fludarabine lymphodepletion; in the second, CD4 T cell clones were administered in a dose escalation study. The safety, duration of in vivo persistence, and anti-tumor efficacy of these trials will be presented along with considerations for future studies.