Abstract
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy has been clinically proved
as a promising therapeutic approach for patients with solid tumor. TIL
therapy could effectively control tumor growth in cervical cancer as
indicated by a phase 2 pivotal trial with an objective response rate of
44.4%. Vulvar cancer is believed to share a similar biological and
immunological phenotype with cervical cancer. However, the therapeutic
potential of TIL in vulvar cancer remains to be explored. In this study,
we described a manufacturing procedure that can expand clinical-scale
TILs from both vulvar cancer and cervical cancer with a high success
rate. Characterization of the phenotype of TIL populations showed that
TILs from vulvar cancer are prone to maintaining a higher percentage of
progenitor-like phenotype and have stronger tumor-killing capacity
compared to TILs from cervical cancer. TCR clonality analysis indicated
that all TIL samples have more enriched TCR clones than PBMC, which
might be expanded during anti-tumor responses and tend to be patient
specific. Thus, our study provides a feasible method of TIL preparation
from and a potential new therapeutic strategy for vulvar cancer
patients.