Adoptive T-cell therapy for the treatment of lung cancer

Lung cancer is an imminent health threat and the predominant cause of cancer-related fatalities worldwide. Significant advancements in identifying important mutational variations in the cells have resulted in the creation of molecularly targeted medicines, the efficacy of which has been hampered by the establishment of resistance mechanisms. The current technological revolution in cancer treatment has resulted in substantial medical therapy and cancer research advances. New cancer treatment techniques, such as immunotherapy, are being hailed as “game changers” and “miracles in the making” due to encouraging results in treating patients with advanced diseases. In the present immunotherapy epoch, a growing number of immunotherapeutic medications have been used in the clinical management of several types of cancer. Adoptive cell therapy (ACT), which uses T cells that have been genetically engineered, such as tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL therapy) and chimeric antigen receptor-modified T (CAR-T) cells, is a revolutionary immunotherapy technique that offers the most promising advanced cancer therapeutics, with unrivaled results in hematological malignancies. This has made it possible to treat solid tumors like lung cancer with immunotherapy in new ways. Nonetheless, due to the tumor’s immunosuppressive microenvironment, its efficacy remains inadequate. As a result, in the current environment, employing adoptive cell therapies to improve efficacy, survival, persistence, and safety in solid tumors remains an important frontier in cancer immunotherapy. A general discussion of the biological milieu of lung tumors is provided in this chapter along with recent developments in adoptive T-cell therapy (T-CT) research, the molecular basis of effective lung cancer management, as well as challenges and potential future directions for the clinical use of TIL and CAR-T cell therapy against lung cancer.