Patent ID: 8007785

Claim:
A method for treating a patient suffering from colon cancer, the method comprising: i) identifying in a patient one or more sentinel or metinel lymph nodes draining a tumour in the colon or a metastasis from a tumour in the colon; ii) resecting the one or more lymph nodes and, optionally all or part of the tumour or metastasis; iii) isolating tumour-reactive T-lymphocytes from said lymph nodes; iv) in vitro expanding said tumour-reactive T-lymphocytes, wherein the in vitro expansion comprises a) a first phase of stimulating tumour-reactive CD4+ helper or CD8+ T-lymphocytes with autologous denatured colon tumour homogenate together with IL-2 to promote survival of tumour-reactive CD4+ helper or CD8+ T-lymphocytes, and b) a second phase of activating and promoting growth of tumour-reactive CD4+ helper or CD8+ T-lymphocytes, wherein the second phase is initiated by adding autologous denatured colon tumour homogenate when the CD25 cell surface marker is down-regulated on T-lymphocytes; and v) administering tumour-reactive T-lymphocytes obtained in step (iv) to the patient; wherein the T-lymphocytes are CD4+ helper or CD8+ T-lymphocytes and are not CD4+ CD25+ Hi lymphocytes.