A method for producing T cells with improved efficacy for adoptive immunotherapy includes obtaining a population of CD8+ T cells from a patient or a donor, determining a % of CD28+CD8+ T cells in the obtained population, activating the determined population with anti-CD3 antibody and anti-CD28 antibody, provided that the determined population comprises at least 50% of CD28+CD8+ T cells, or activating the determined population with anti-CD3 antibody in the absence of anti-CD28 antibody, provided that the determined population comprises less than 50% of CD28+CD8+ T cells, transducing the activated population with a viral vector, and expanding the transduced population, in which the transducing and the expanding are carried out in the presence of at least one cytokine.
