Clinical application of cell-based therapies opportunities and challenges

Immune checkpoint inhibitors or anti-cancer immunotherapy using cellular transfer have emerged as new therapies in this field. These therapies work to overcome or alleviate tumour-induced immunosuppression, resulting in immune-mediated tumour clearance. Cellular therapies have the largest number of active agents and clinical trials. More targets have been explored, more trials have been opened and more patients have been recruited for trials as a result of recent advancements. In this article, we describe the latest developments and major obstacles in cell therapy for cancer treatment, starting with tumour-infiltrating T cells. Cell adoptive therapy and its challenges center dot Challenges for T-cell receptor therapy center dot Challenges for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy center dot Ways to improve tumour microenvironment image