Oxygen starvation during T cell priming boosts cancer-killing potential

Immune-based tumor-therapy has seen substantial progress in recent years and has made important inroads in the fight against cancer. Checkpoint inhibitors are a clinical success and the use of cell-based therapy models is rapidly expanding. T cells, such as chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CARs) and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), are now routinely cultured and activated in labs and subsequently adoptively transferred to patients with the aim of reducing and eradicating tumors. However, although positive results have been obtained in clinical trials, immune rejection of tumors is often not successful.