Advances of cell therapy in lung cancer: a narrative review

Background and Objective: Lung cancer is the second most prevalent malignancy and has the highest death rate. The main approaches for lung cancer treatment include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. However, the treatments of the disease need to be further improved. An increasing number of scientific investigations indicated cell therapy to be a successful new treatment for lung cancer. Cell therapy can improve the host's immunity to disease and can compensate for the shortcomings in the therapeutic effects of traditional treatments, particularly in the case of cancer treatment. However, due to its recent development, its clinical efficacy still needs to be further examined. In order to provide an updated source on cell therapy for lung cancer, this paper summarizes the clinical use of chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-Ts), stem cells, cytokine-induced killer cells (CIKs), and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and discusses recent clinical advancements. Methods: We performed a search of the PubMed database on March 28, 2023, and again on June 10, 2023. A review of retrieved literature related to cell therapy and treatments for lung cancer was completed.Key Content and Findings: Cell therapy has been applied in clinical studies on the treatment of disorders of the hematologic system, digestive system, respiratory system, and other systems. CAR-T therapy has been successfully used in the treatment of B-cell malignancies, which suggests that cell therapy has broad prospects in the treatment of malignant tumors. CAR-T, stem cells, CIKs, and TILs exert antitumor activity and can recognize and could be used to treat lung cancer.Conclusions: Cell therapy represents a novel solution in the treatment of lung cancer. Cell therapy, when combined with traditional therapies, can compensate for the shortcomings of these methods. Further research is needed to reduce the occurrence of adverse reactions and provide a more effective approach in treating lung cancer.