Enhancement of T cell recruitment and infiltration into tumours
Studies have documented that cancer patients with tumours which are highly infiltrated with cytotoxic T lymphocytes show enhanced survival rates. The ultimate goal of cancer immunotherapy is to elicit high‐avidity tumour‐specific T cells to migrate and kill malignant tumours. Novel antibody therapies such as ipilumimab (a cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen‐4 blocking antibody) show enhanced T cell infiltration into the tumour tissue and increased survival. More conventional therapies such as chemotherapy or anti‐angiogenic therapy and recent therapies with oncolytic viruses have been shown to alter the tumour microenvironment and thereby lead to enhanced T cell infiltration. Understanding the mechanisms involved in the migration of high‐avidity tumour‐specific T cells into tumours will support and provide solutions for the optimization of therapeutic options in cancer immunotherapy.