TIL Therapy: A New Melanoma Treatment 30 Years in the Making
Source: AACR, May 2024
Almost two-thirds of patients diagnosed with metastatic melanoma are expected to die within five years, but a newly approved treatment may help some patients live longer. Lifileucel (Amtagvi), a tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, is a first-of-its-kind personalized immunotherapy that amplifies the cancer-fighting immune cells already present in a patient’s melanoma.
Lifileucel is the first TIL therapy to be approved for clinical use and the first cell-based immunotherapy to be approved for a solid tumor.
Its historic approval is the culmination of more than 30 years of research, driven in large part by Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, FAACR, a senior investigator and chief of surgery at the National Cancer Institute, who received the 2024 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research for his pioneering contributions to the field of immunotherapy.