Nonmyeloablative blood stem cell transplantation as adoptive allogeneic immunotherapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Allogeneic stem cell transplantation has emerged as a potentially curative form of immunotherapy for patients with hematological malignancies that are resistant to conventional chemo/radiotherapy. Donor T cell populations tar geting allogeneic minor histocompatibility antigens expressed on the patien t's malignant cells are felt to be the driving force of the graft-versus-le ukemia reaction, although to date only a handful of these antigens have bee n fully characterized. Recent data from experimental animal models and limi ted clinical data in humans suggest that graft-versus-tumor effects, analog ous to the graft-versus-leukemia reaction, may be generated against maligna ncies of epithelial origin. This article reviews the results of a pilot tri al demonstrating graft-versus-renal cell carcinoma effects following nonmye loablative stem cell transplantation, highlighting the potential of allogen eic immunotherapy for treating cancer.