OBJECTIVE Metastatic renal cell carcinoma is a disease with a mean survival of 6 to 10 months. Interleukin-2 (IL-2), the only approved therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma, is associated with a 14% response rate and durable remissions in some patients with high performance status. We performed a series of trials of IL-2 plus tumor infiltrating lymphocyte cell therapy and report the clinical results from 62 patients enrolled in these trials. METHODS Patients were eligible if they had metastatic renal cell carcinoma with the primary tumor in place and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1. Patients were treated with cytokines before nephrectomy and preparation of cytokine primed tumor infiltrating lymphocytes or CD8(+) tumor infiltrating lymphocytes were isolated for infusion into patients. Of 62 patients enrolled 55 were treated with tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and IL-2, and were evaluable for toxicity, response and survival. RESULTS There were no postoperative mortalities. Of the patients 7 (11%) could not undergo systemic therapy. No unexpected IL-2 related toxicities or significant toxicities related to cell infusion were noted. Overall 5 patients (9.1%) achieved a complete response and 14 (25.5%) achieved a partial response. The responses were durable with a median duration of 14 months (range 0.8+ to 64+). The actuarial survival was 65% at 1 year and 43% at 2 years from the time of nephrectomy, with an overall median survival for all patients of 22 months (range 2 to 70+). The median survival for the responding patients has not yet been reached (range 2 to 63+). CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that immunotherapy with radical nephrectomy, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, and IL-2 provides substantial clinical benefit in the majority of patients. Component cellular therapy with enriched cell fractions allows the administration of a more standardized cell product. The present results with nephrectomy, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and IL-2 are encouraging, and a randomized clinical trial of nephrectomy, CD8(+) tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, plus IL-2 versus nephrectomy and IL-2 alone is currently in progress.