The status, limitation and improvement of adoptive cellular immunotherapy in advanced urologic malignancies

In recent years, immunotherapy has been gradually established as the fourth frequently adopted antitumor therapy, following surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, for advanced urologic malignancies with an improved understanding of theoretical basis, such as molecular biology and immunology. Thereinto, adoptive cellular immunotherapy (ACI) has become one of the hotspots, which comprises a variety of treatment approaches, such as TIL, CIK cell, γδ T cell, CAR-engineered T cell and Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT). Although preclinical efficacy has been demonstrated remarkably, clinical trials could not consistently show the benefit due to multi-factors in complex immunosuppressive microenvironment in vivo compared to that of in vitro. Here we review some timely aspects of ACI for advanced urologic malignancies, and describe the current status and limitation of immunotherapy from the cellular level. It’s our expectation to provide prompting consideration of novel combinatorial ACI strategies and a resurgence of interest in ACI for advanced urologic malignancies.