T cells are crucial players in the protection against cancer, and can be used in adoptive cell therapy to prevent or treat relapse. However, their state of differentiation determines their effectiveness, with early memory cells being the most favorable. Here, we discuss restraining of differentiation to engineer the ultimate tumor-reactive T cell.
Keywords: ACT: adoptive cell therapy; APC: antigen-presenting cells; Akt; Allo-SCT: allogeneic stem cell transplantation; CAR: chimeric antigen receptor; DCs: dendritic cells; IL-15; IL-7; MiHAs: minor histocompatibility antigens; T-cell differentiation; TCR: T-cell receptor; TILs: tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes; Tcm: central memory T; Teff: effector T; Tem: effector memory T; Tn: naive T; Tscm: stem cell memory T; Wnt; adoptive T cell therapy; dendritic cell; stem cell transplantation.