TIL Therapy

The University of Kansas Cancer Center is the first and only cancer center in the region to offer an innovative cellular therapy to treat advanced melanoma.

This is the first FDA-approved treatment (called Lifileucel, trade name Amtagvi®) for solid tumor cancer that uses immune cells called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs. Lymphocytes are the part of our immune system that attack and kill cancer cells, and the TILs found in cancer are recognizing the cancer and trying to kill it. Advanced melanoma is classified as stage III or IV metastatic melanoma and is an aggressive form of skin cancer that has spread from where it originated in the body.

TIL therapy is a form of cellular therapy that draws on the cancer-fighting abilities of TIL cells. TIL therapy enhances the role of these cells in fighting melanoma. Our expert surgical oncologists remove a piece of the patient’s tumor, which is then sent to a company where the TILs are isolated and multiplied. The enhanced cells are then infused back into the patient, where they recognize, attack and kill cancer cells in the body.

TIL therapy is a form of cellular therapy that draws on the cancer-fighting abilities of TIL cells. TIL therapy enhances the role of these cells in fighting melanoma. Our experts collect cells from the patient’s tumor and send them off to be engineered and multiplied. They are then infused back into the patient, where they recognize, attack and kill cancer cells in the body.

TIL therapy is a personalized form of immunotherapy like CAR T-cell therapy – both use a patient’s own cells to fight cancer, but they differ in origin and target. CAR T-cell therapy, used primarily for blood cancers, genetically modifies blood T cells to target specific antigens. TIL therapy, used for solid tumors like melanoma, expands naturally occurring, tumor-seeking T cells.

To receive TIL therapy, you must have advanced melanoma that cannot be completely removed with surgery and has continued to spread and grow after receiving approved therapies, including certain immunotherapy drugs or targeted therapies.

You may be eligible to receive TIL treatment if your melanoma:

• Cannot be completely removed with surgery
• Has not responded to certain immunotherapy drugs and targeted therapies
• Has spread to other parts of your body

TIL therapy involves isolating and expanding TIL cells from the patient’s tumor tissue. A piece of tumor is removed by surgery and then sent to a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, where TIL cells are isolated and expanded outside the body. Because the T-cells are gathered from tumor tissue, they’ve already shown they can recognize specific abnormal proteins or antigens on the surface of the melanoma tumor cells and attack them.

The resulting TIL therapy cell product is cryopreserved and returned to the patient for intravenous infusion. Cryopreservation is a process of cooling and storing cells, tissues or organs at very low or freezing temperatures to save them for future use, which in this case is reinfusion to the patient.

To prepare the body to receive the T-cells, patients receive a course of chemotherapy and are also treated with interleukin-2 to boost T-cell activity.

If you will be receiving TIL therapy, you can expect the following to take place:

• Surgery to remove part of your tumor
• TIL cells sent off and grown in a laboratory (takes several weeks)
• Chemotherapy to prepare your body for infusion
• Infusion of your enhanced TIL cells
• Recovery and monitoring

Like all medications, TIL therapy may cause side effects. However, you may have no side effects or only minor side effects. Overall, side effects of TIL therapy may include:

• Blood pressure or breathing changes
• Diarrhea
• Fatigue, fever or chills
• Low blood cell counts
• Nausea
• Swelling, rash or fluid buildup

TIL therapy is 1 of only 330 medications to receive FDA-accelerated approval since 1992. Accelerated approval is one way people can receive promising new drugs when other treatment options may not exist.

The University of Kansas Cancer Center offers comprehensive cancer treatment, including TIL therapy for advanced melanoma. Our medical and surgical oncologists and melanoma specialists are dedicated to ensuring you receive the highest quality care and most personalized treatment options available. These experts are coordinating international research projects to improve how we select patients to receive TIL therapy, how we pick the best sites for TIL surgery and how we determine the best time to deliver TIL therapy in the course of melanoma treatment. Our care teams work together to develop individual treatment plans for each person based on their needs and goals with input from a variety of specialists.

We are the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Kansas and 1 of fewer than 60 in the United States. Patients treated at NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers have a 25% greater chance of survival compared to other cancer centers. NCI-designated cancer centers are pioneers in cancer research, recognized for their scientific leadership, resources and depth of research in basic, clinical and population sciences. To maintain our NCI designation, we go through a rigorous, highly competitive process to demonstrate our contributions to reducing the cancer burden in our region and throughout Kansas and western Missouri.