Assessment of antitumor T-cell responses by flow cytometry after coculture of tumor cells with autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes

Abstract

As a consequence of the ever-increasing use of immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer, interest in the direct interaction between T cells and tumors has surged tremendously. In vitro coculture of tumor cells with autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) is a highly physiological and clinically relevant model to study functional T-cell responses that result from the array of activatory and inhibitory signals that naturally occur on the patient’s own tumor cells. This chapter describes a detailed protocol to set up a tumor-TIL coculture and assess ensuing functional T-cell responses, in order to establish the strength of tumor recognition by T cells and identify key determinants that govern this.