autologous tumor cell vaccine

A therapeutic agent produced by isolating tumor cells from an individual and processing these tumor cells into a vaccine formulation in vitro; the vaccine is then administered to the individual from whom the tumor cells were isolated. Typically combined with an adjuvant immunostimulant, an autologous cell vaccine may elicit a cytotoxic T-lymphocytic immune response to cell surface-expressed tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), resulting in tumor cell death.