Stem Cell for Cancer Immunotherapy: Current Approaches and Challenges
Alali Z., Ferdous UT., Nzila A., Easmin F., Shakoor A., Zia AW.
Narrative Review, published in Stem Cell Rev Rep (2025) — summary generated from the PubMed abstract.
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
- Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
- Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
- Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
- Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
- Emerging · Emerging topic under active research
This page is generated from the PubMed record. The Thai description is an automated summary of bibliographic fields and the abstract, not a full translation, and is not medical advice.
- Study type
- Narrative Review
- Journal
- Stem Cell Rev Rep (2025)
- Reported sample size
- —
- Source database
- Europe PMC
- PMID
- 40650799
- PMCID
- PMC12408727
- DOI
- 10.1007/s12015-025-10933-5
- Citations
- 4
Abstract (original English)
Stem cell-based immunotherapy represents a groundbreaking advancement in cancer treatment, leveraging the immune system's inherent capacity to target and eradicate cancer cells. This review explores some of the examples of stem cells used in cancer immunotherapy, including hematopoietic, mesenchymal, and induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs). It also describes stem cell functionalities like modifying tumor microenvironment (TME) and developing engineered immune cells like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. Additionally, the clinical applications of stem cells for improving cancer immunotherapies and delivering drugs directly to solid tumors are discussed. However, several challenges limit the effectiveness of stem cell technology, including safety risks, tumor avoidance by the immune system, and regulatory protocols as well as manufacturing barriers. This article reviews current advancements to overcome these challenges, such as CRISPR-based gene editing and targeted drug delivery systems and provides an outlook on emerging trends, such as the progress of personalized stem cell therapies and the increasing effectiveness of treatment by combining them with other cancer treatments.
What this study does not prove
- • This study does not prove SVF is an approved treatment or a replacement for standard care.
- • This is a narrative review: it collects no new patient data and does not systematically appraise evidence quality.
Evidence level
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
How we grade evidenceBrowse all related research
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