Cancer immunotherapies are being tested in thousands of clinical trials, yet no one knows exactly where the therapeutic immune cells go once they are inside the body. This gap in knowledge matters because immune cells must physically reach tumours and interact with other cells to work. Without understanding their trafficking—how they move, where they accumulate, and why they sometimes fail to arrive—researchers cannot rationally improve treatments or prioritise which drug combinations to test. T-RAFIC brings together cell imaging, bioinformatics, cell engineering, and clinical expertise from 13 academic and three industrial partners across nine European countries to track and visualise immune cells under therapeutic influence at unprecedented resolution. If successful, the network could reveal why some patients respond to immunotherapy while others do not, and guide the design of more effective treatments. It will also train a new generation of researchers skilled in this emerging field, addressing a critical shortage of experts that currently threatens European research and medicine. The work is fundamentally about understanding a basic biological process—cell trafficking—with direct implications for cancer therapy.
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Cancer immunotherapies have been established in a growing number of clinical indications and the pace of development is massively accelerating. Currently over 6.000 clinical trials are investigating immune-related treatments in oncology, especially in combinations. It includes both adoptive cellular therapies and immune-modulating treatments like immune checkpoint blockade. In contrast, the understanding of how such therapies mediate their mode of action is still mostly poorly understood. In particular, the role of distribution and relocation of immune cells after therapeutic interventions remains unknown. This is surprising, as immune cell interactions are a hallmark of therapeutic immune responses. T-RAFIC will enhance understanding of immune cell trafficking under therapeutic influence. It will open new paths and avenues to treatments, boost their efficacy and help prioritizing the plethora of immune therapeutic combinations. In the past, detailed analysis of cellular distributions was facing technical barriers. Advances in technologies, now permit tracking and visualization of cells in vitro and in vivo at an unprecedented resolution, allowing for the first time studies on immune cells under therapeutic influence. This emerging field of research has enormous potential and key importance for the next generation of researchers in oncology and beyond. However, experts in this field are missing and this threatens European research, development and medicine. Therefore, T-RAFIC joins forces of 13 academic and three industrial partners from nine European countries to conduct an innovative and interdisciplinary approach combining cell imaging with bioinformatics, cell engineering and clinician expertise. The network bundles recognised expertise in cancer immunotherapies, empowering European research and innovation and ensuring a sustainable cooperation in science and training.
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