T-memory cells against cancer: Remembering the enemy

Recently various types of immunotherapies have made immense progress in combating cancer. Adoptive cell therapy, being one of the most favorable forms of immunotherapy, is rapidly moving from bench to bed.

Different types of T-memory cells are being used as promising candidates for adoptive cell therapy: T effector memory (T_EM) cells which are terminally differentiated memory cells and attain effector function soon after re-stimulation; T central memory (T_CM) cells which differentiate into effector T-memory subsets and T-effector cells after antigenic stimulation; and tissue T resident memory (T_RM) cells which fight the tumor insult at the peripheral tissues. Recently, a new subtype of T-memory cells, T stem cell memory (T_SCM) have been identified as the most favorable candidate for adoptive cell therapy as they exhibit higher persistence, anti-tumor immunity and self-renewal capacity in the tumor-bearing host.

In this review, we briefly describe the concept and types of T-memory cells as well as their role as potential candidates for anti-cancer immunotherapy.