TIL Therapy: A New Era for Advanced Melanoma Treatment
SOURCE: Targeted Oncology, May 2025
Anuradha Krishnamurthy, MBBS, provides backgrounds on TILs and discusses their critical role in the advanced melanoma treatment landscape.
Therapy using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) has been around for a long time, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducting research in this area for over 30 years. However, it has only recently received approval for treating melanoma, especially advanced or metastatic forms.
TIL therapy’s approval stems from promising clinical trials. An initial phase 2 trial for advanced melanoma showed a 31% objective response rate in patients. This led to a follow-up phase 3 trial that further demonstrated the therapy’s benefits. In this trial, TIL therapy not only improved objective response rates but also extended median overall survival and, crucially, provided sustained responses for prolonged periods.