A new study has revealed that liver cancer (Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)) may be treated by adoptive T-cell therapy.
The study presented at the International Liver Congress 2014 detected and expanded MHC-multimer-positive CD8+ T-cells specific for targeted GPC3 epitopes and grew T-cell clones, from which the most specific and active T-cell receptor was isolated.
The researchers found that that when this T-cell receptor was expressed on donor T cells it conferred specificity for GPC3, the HCC-associated antigen, enabling HLA-A2+ patient’s T cells to specifically kill GPC3+ HCC.
Scientists said that liver transplant is an option for only 10 -15 percent of HCC carriers diagnosed at an early stage and therefore the importance of other treatment options for patients is critical, thus the treatment gap could be useful for the adoptive T-cell therapy. (ANI)