# Endogenous T-cell therapy

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/endogenous-t-cell-therapy/  
OnCo record `endogenous-t-cell-therapy` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A treatment that finds the rare T cells in a patient's own blood that already recognise the cancer, grows large numbers of them in the laboratory without changing their genes, and infuses them back.

## Summary

Yee, Lizee and Schueneman describe three ways of adoptive T-cell transfer: tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes taken from a biopsy; lymphocytes redirected by a chimeric antigen receptor or T-cell receptor; and the isolation and expansion of often low-frequency endogenous T cells reactive to tumour antigens from the peripheral blood, which they call endogenous T-cell (ETC) therapy (Cancer Journal 2015). It needs specialised methods to isolate and expand very low-frequency tumour-reactive T cells from blood, and the authors note that a trial can be started quickly once a tumour-associated target epitope has been identified (Cancer Journal 2015). The early melanoma trials at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center infused such cells as clones against MART-1, gp100, tyrosinase and NY-ESO-1.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-11-05
- Also known as: ETC therapy; endogenous T cell therapy; ETC; peripheral blood-derived antigen-specific T cells

## Sources

- DOI 10.1097/PPO.0000000000000158: https://doi.org/10.1097/PPO.0000000000000158
- PubMed 26588682: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26588682/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Melanoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/melanoma/)
- technologies: [CAR-T cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/car-t/), [TCR-T cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/tcr-t/), [TIL therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/til-therapy/)
- key papers: [Adoptive T cell therapy using antigen-specific CD8+ T cell clones for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma: in vivo persistence, migration, and antitumor effect of transferred T cells](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-yee-ctl-clones-melanoma-pnas-2002/), [Endogenous T-Cell Therapy: Clinical Experience](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-yee-endogenous-t-cell-therapy-cancer-j-2015/), [Fludarabine modulates immune response and extends in vivo survival of adoptively transferred CD8 T cells in patients with metastatic melanoma](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-wallen-fludarabine-ctl-melanoma-plos-one-2009/), [Melanocyte destruction after antigen-specific immunotherapy of melanoma: direct evidence of T cell-mediated vitiligo](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-yee-t-cell-vitiligo-jem-2000/), [T-Cell Therapy Using Interleukin-21-Primed Cytotoxic T-Cell Lymphocytes Combined With Cytotoxic T-Cell Lymphocyte Antigen-4 Blockade Results in Long-Term Cell Persistence and Durable Tumor Regression](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-chapuis-il21-ctl-ipilimumab-jco-2016/), [The use of endogenous T cells for adoptive transfer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-yee-endogenous-t-cells-immunol-rev-2014/), [Transferred melanoma-specific CD8+ T cells persist, mediate tumor regression, and acquire central memory phenotype](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-chapuis-cd8-central-memory-melanoma-pnas-2012/), [Treatment of metastatic melanoma with autologous CD4+ T cells against NY-ESO-1](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-hunder-cd4-ny-eso-1-melanoma-nejm-2008/)
- people: [Cassian Yee](https://onco.cc/people/cassian-yee/)
- trials: [Autologous CD4+ antigen-specific T-cell clones in advanced ovarian or primary peritoneal cancer (Fred Hutchinson phase 1)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct00101257/), [Autologous CD4+ antigen-specific T-cell clones in metastatic melanoma (Fred Hutchinson phase 1)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct00045357/), [Autologous CD4+ NY-ESO-1-specific T cells with ipilimumab in NY-ESO-1-expressing tumours (MD Anderson phase 1, withdrawn)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct02210104/), [CD8+ antigen-specific T-cell clones after cyclophosphamide, with aldesleukin, in stage IV melanoma (Fred Hutchinson phase 1, NCI-2010-01280)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct00438984/), [CD8+ antigen-specific T-cell clones after cyclophosphamide, with aldesleukin, in stage IV melanoma (Fred Hutchinson phase 1/2, NCI-2010-01281)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct00553306/), [CD8+ T-cell clones against cancer-testis antigens in metastatic melanoma (Fred Hutchinson phase 1)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct00045149/), [Fludarabine before CD8+ antigen-specific T-cell clones in stage IV melanoma (Fred Hutchinson phase 1)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct00317759/), [IL-21-modulated CD8+ antigen-specific T cells with cyclophosphamide and aldesleukin in metastatic melanoma (Fred Hutchinson phase 1, terminated)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct01106235/), [Tyrosinase-specific CD8+ T cells, gene-modified and unmodified, in metastatic melanoma (Fred Hutchinson phase 1/2)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct00002786/)

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