Can we modify our own immune cells in such a way that we can use them as medicines?

Cancer patients have immune cells in their bodies that can recognize cancer cells. These immune cells can't fight the condition alone, however. At the Netherlands Cancer Institute, we use Cell Therapy to strengthen the immune cells: we remove the immune cells from the patient's body and multiply them in a lab. This allows us to create a medicine for this particular patient. TIL Therapy is very promising, although not all patients can benefit from it yet.

Immune cells as medicines

Inge Jedema, head of translational cellular therapy, explains more about this form of immunotherapy in this video.

T Cell receptor (TCR) gene therapy

We are also working on the reinforcement of a patient's own immune cells. We remove the immune cells from the patient's body and insert an additional gene that helps them recognize and destroy cancer cells. We then multiply the cells at the lab and return them to the patient, where they can get to work destroying the cancer cells. We are currently researching the efficacy of this therapy in cancer patients in clinical trials.