Abstract: Embodiments of the disclosure provide methods and compositions that facilitate cancer treatment including at least because they concern therapies that circumvent the tumor microenvironment. In specific embodiments, compositions are utilized for therapy that utilize tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and/or engineered T cells that are protected from immunosuppression from the tumor microenvironment because they are engineered to have reduced or eliminated expression of transforming growth factor-beta receptor 2 and/or I-cell-Ig-and-ITIM-domain and/or CD7 genes.