A new experimental and clinical approach of combining usage of highly active tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and highly sensitive antitumor drugs for the advanced malignant tumor

In recent years, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have been reported to be effective for tumors in experimental and clinical research. In order to increase the therapeutical effect, we modified some steps of Rosenberg's approach: a. cold digestion with collagenase at 4°C for 24 hours; b. sedimentation instead of centrifugation; c. elimination of tumor cells before the cultivation procedure. Compared with the original approach, the proliferation, activity and cytotoxicity of TILs obtained by the modified procedure were much improved. TILs' expansion-fold was greater than that with the original approach. Cytotoxicity against tumor cells was more potent. Increased TILs' subsets were CD3 and CD8 cells. Meanwhile, we took tumor cells from tumor tissues to test their in vitro chemosensitivities to different drugs in order to select highly sensitive antitumor drugs for treatment of cases with advanced tumors. According to the design of using highly active TILs and highly sensitive drugs (H and H therapy), preliminary clinical results of 50 cases showed higher response rates than those in treatment with TIL/IL2, LAK/IL2 and TIL + IL2 + CTX. Less toxic side effects were observed in 14 patients.