Synergistic effects of low-dose chemotherapy and T cells in renal cell carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is not sensitive to conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and the effectiveness rate of molecular targeted therapy is low. Therefore, it is urgent to identify new treatment methods. Recently, adoptive T-cell therapy has provided a new option for cancer treatment. Furthermore, low-dose chemotherapy not only has no evident side effects and inhibitory effects on the human immune system, but can also enhance the immune activity of some effector cells. Therefore, it is surmised that the combination of different mechanisms of chemotherapy and immunotherapy could be a new treatment concept. In the present study, the effects of low-dose chemotherapy combined with T cells in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma were explored using cytotoxicity assays, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), western blot analysis and flow cytometric analysis. The results revealed that low-dose chemotherapy and T cells had synergistic effects on tumor cell elimination in vitro. The transforming growth factor (TGF)-β signaling pathway may be involved in the inhibition of T-cell functions. The targeted inhibition of TGF-β signals may be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of renal cancer. The present results provided a novel strategy for the combination of low-dose chemotherapy and T cells to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of RCC treatment.