Microfluidic models for adoptive cell-mediated cancer immunotherapies

Abstract

Current adoptive T cell therapies have shown promising results in clinical trials but need further development as an effective cancer treatment. Here, we discuss how 3D microfluidic tumour models mimicking the tumour microenvironment could help in testing T cell immunotherapies by assessing engineered T cells and identifying combinatorial therapy to improve therapeutic efficacy. We propose that 3D microfluidic systems can be used to screen different patient-specific treatments, thereby reducing the burden of in vivo testing and facilitating the rapid translation of successful T cell cancer immunotherapies to the clinic.