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Adoptive Cell Therapy in Treating Pediatric Solid Tumors

  • Pediatric Oncology (G Tian, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This review will discuss the challenges facing adoptive cell techniques in the treatment of solid tumors and examine the therapies that are in development for specifically pediatric solid tumors.

Recent Findings

Targeting solid tumors with adoptive cell therapy has been limited by the inhibitory tumor microenvironment and heterogeneous expression of targetable antigens. Many creative strategies to overcome these limitations are being developed but still need to be tested clinically. Early phase clinical trials in neuroblastoma with GD2 CAR T cells are promising but results need to be validated on a larger scale. Most research in other pediatric solid tumors is still in early stages.

Summary

Adoptive cell therapy represents a useful tool to improve the outcomes of many pediatric solid tumors but significant study is still required. Several clinical trials are ongoing to test therapies that have shown promise in the lab.

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Funding

This work was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant T32HL007057 (MT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Mekdem Tesfaye

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Hematology Oncology, and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, 125 Mason Farm Road, 5203 Marsico Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7290, USA

    Barbara Savoldo

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  1. Mekdem Tesfaye
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  2. Barbara Savoldo
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Correspondence to Barbara Savoldo.

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Mekdem Tesfaye declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Barbara Savoldo has received research funding through grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Hyundai Hope on Wheels, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and has research agreements with both Cell Medica and bluebird bio.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Pediatric Oncology

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Tesfaye, M., Savoldo, B. Adoptive Cell Therapy in Treating Pediatric Solid Tumors. Curr Oncol Rep 20, 73 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-018-0715-9

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