Tumor-derived chemokine MCP-1/CCL2 is sufficient for mediating tumor tropism of adoptively transferred T cells.

To exert a therapeutic effect, adoptively transferred tumor-specific CTLs must traffic to sites of tumor burden, exit the circulation, and infiltrate the tumor microenvironment. In this study, we examine the ability of adoptively transferred human CTL to traffic to tumors with disparate chemokine secretion profiles independent of tumor Ag recognition. Using a combination of in vivo tumor tropism studies and in vitro biophotonic chemotaxis assays, we observed that cell lines derived from glioma, medulloblastoma, and renal cell carcinoma efficiently chemoattracted ex vivo-expanded primary human T cells.