Agilent - Breakthroughs in Immunotherapy- 2019 - 27

Breakthroughs in Immunotherapy

GEN: What are the main challenges in assessing and
monitoring the potency and efficiency of cytotoxic
immunotherapies targeting cancer?
Dr. Anderson: The challenges differ for each tumor type. Most
experiments that work with human samples have to be done in a
Petri dish, which does not replicate the complexities of the tumor
microenvironment. In addition, we have had problems looking at
ovarian cancer cells using some of the "gold standard" assays,
such as chromium release and flow cytometry killing assays. The
cancer cells we use often do not take up or retain the chromium
label well, resulting in high background readings.
With flow-based assays, which also require labeling, if you put in
too many cell types, which are often necessary as controls, overcrowding can occur and result in nonspecific tumor cell death.
In these scenarios, background cell death makes it difficult to
evaluate true T cell-mediated killing.
Dr. Overstreet: One of the biggest challenges is to improve our
ability to model and predict what will work in humans. Many of
these pathways are understood in the mouse, and while some of
them have provided good translation to humans, others have not.
We have been able to build in vitro systems on the xCELLigence
platform in which we can study the cognate interactions between
human T cells and human tumor cells in a way that might be
more reflective of what you would see in a patient's tumor.
Dr. Bamdad: Timing, accuracy, and flexibility of your instrumentation are paramount. You can use fluorescence-activated cell
27

| GENengnews.com

Cynthia C. Bamdad, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO
Minerva Biotechnologies

"Timing, accuracy, and flexibility
of your instrumentation are
paramount."

http://www.GENengnews.com

Agilent - Breakthroughs in Immunotherapy- 2019

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