Synopsis

Immune cell therapy is an important approach in the broader repertoire of cancer immunotherapy, a new treatment that uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer in a more personalized and effective manner. Injecting immune cells such as chimeric antigen receptor T cells has shown prolonged survival. However, in-vivo cell distribution and survival are often unknown and may underlie why immunotherapy sometimes fails. We will review current methods for tracking immune cells, their limitations, and a potentially larger role for MRI. We will also briefly discuss imaging assessment of tumor response to correctly identify pseudoprogression, an immunotherapy-specific phenotype.