Pilot study of local autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes for the treatment of recurrent malignant gliomas.

A prospective pilot study was performed in order to assess the safety of treating recurrent malignant gliomas (MGs) with locally infused autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2). Six patients were entered between June 27, 1994 and June 2, 1995 and followed until July 1, 1998. At surgery an Ommaya reservoir was placed for later infusion of TILs and rIL-2. Following surgery, autologous TILs were expanded in vitro in the presence of rIL-2 and infused on treatment days 1 and 14, with concurrent rIL-2 infusions performed three times each week for one month. Following completion of immunotherapy all patients were offered chemotherapy. Phenotypic analysis demonstrated TILs to be T-lymphocytes (87–99% CD3+). Of these, 4 of 6 cases (67%) phenotyped as cytotoxic/suppressor T-lymphocytes (CD8+) and 2 of 6 cases (33%) phenotyped as helper/inducer T-lymphocytes (CD4+). TILs demonstrated limited selective cytotoxicity, with dose dependent cytotoxicity against autologous tumor, allogenic tumor and long term MG cell lines.