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Our rapidly improving understanding of the immune system and the appreciation of the mechanisms by which tumors and infections with viral or bacterial infections are controlled have led to promising new treatment strategies. Adoptive transfer of tailored antigen-specific immune cells and/or optimally designed immunological effector molecules is an elegant and promising approach to establish or restore protective immune responses. Experts from various fields present a comprehensive collection of state-of-the-art methods for adoptive immunotherapy. The recent technical advances and specific methods from the areas of dendritic cell therapy, generation of antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells, anti-tumor treatment with specific antibodies, and strategies to reconstitute immunity to persisting viruses have been compiled and are presented in the methods sections. These chapters are complemented by articles describing the clinical trial stage of selected approaches. Summary articles from leading experts in the field provide a theoretical overview and point out future directions for the improvement of adoptive immunotherapy. Additional chapters on the molecular definition of "ideal" tumor antigens, mathematical modelling approaches to immunotherapy, and the utilization of regulatory T cells makes this a valuable manual for the use in preclinical research and in clinical development.