Strategies for managing factors affecting cell therapy efficacy

Cancer immunotherapy has made great strides forward due to the success of adoptive cell therapies – such as CAR-T, CAR-Treg, CAR-NK, and those based on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) – which harness the body’s own natural defenses. These cellular therapies offer the promise of minimal toxicities with the benefit of long-term immune protection, and multiple clinical trials are being conducted worldwide to further optimize this treatment modality.

ISCT 2023 – the annual meeting of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy – in Paris saw distinguished panelists take part in a roundtable discussion on strategies for managing factors affecting cell therapy efficacy. Sponsored by Sony Biotechnology, this event was chaired by Patrick Hanley, Vice President of North America for ISCT, and the panel included Aude Chapuis (Associate Professor at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, USA), Maxime Danilo (Head of Late Process Development & Analytics in the Center of Experimental Therapeutics at Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland), Cheryl Cox (Core Operations Director at the Moffitt Cancer Center, USA), and Steve Highfill (Director of Product Development, at the NIH’s Center for Cellular Engineering, USA).

An illuminating hour saw the expert panel explore the specific T-cell attributes influencing the performance of adoptive T-cell transfers, such as early memory T-cell populations in CAR-T and in vivo antitumor treatments using TILs, with opportunities for audience participation. The session highlighted the advantages of leveraging T-cell subtypes, and discussed the different methods in use – such as magnetic bead-based and flow sorting approaches – as well as the importance of reproducibility and automation in the overall cell therapy manufacturing workflow. The various parameters affecting CAR-T efficacy were also put in the spotlight, and the advantages and disadvantages of different technologies for optimizing cell therapy manufacturing processes, for example, in terms of automation and regulation, were debated.