Cellular Immunotherapies: Revving Up T Cells to Fight Cancer

Immunotherapy has greatly improved our ability to treat cancer by tapping into the immune system, especially its powerful T cells. These T cells can be utilized therapeutically in multiple ways. Several current immunotherapies involve taking T cells from both patients’ blood and their tumors, which enables doctors to supply patients with powerful tumor-targeting forces that can potentially help eliminate their disease.

In this webinar for patients and caregivers, Philip Greenberg, MD, one of the pioneers of this cell-based immunotherapy approach (known as adoptive cell therapy), discusses how these cutting-edge strategies are currently being used in the clinic as well as how they might be improved moving forward.

Dr. Philip Greenberg was a founding member of the University of Washington Department of Immunology, where he remains a professor in medicine and immunotherapy, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s program in immunology, which he now heads. In the 1990s, Greenberg was part of the team that first revealed that patient-derived T cells could be used against disease through a process known as adoptive cell therapy.  After first demonstrating this approach’s effectiveness in patients infected by cytomegalovirus (CMV), his team later showed that it could be used to benefit melanoma patients and patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Since then, through both laboratory research and clinical trials, he has advanced our ability to re-engineer T cells and make them even better at fighting cancer. In recognition of his achievements, Greenberg received the 2011 William B. Coley Award, and has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also currently a member researcher affiliated with the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy as well as a member of the Cancer Research Institute Scientific Advisory Council.

The "Cancer Immunotherapy and You" webinar series is produced by the Cancer Research Institute and is made possible with generous support from Bristol-Myers Squibb, with additional support from Regeneron, Sanofi Genzyme, and Adaptimmune.

Browse our Cancer Immunotherapy and You Webinar Series playlist on YouTube or visit the Webinars page on our website to see other webinars in this series.